On the eve of the local elections in Britain’s capital, candidates for the Mayor of London are increasing the push by appealing to national and ethnic minorities in the city to come out and vote for them on May 1st. With around three hundred thousand Poles living in London, many of them will be eligible to vote. But who to vote for?

John Beauchamp reports

London. A capital with over seven million inhabitants, and only one Mayor to decide how things are to be run. That’s quite a job.

With an estimated population of around three hundred thousand Poles living in the capital, many of them will be allowed to vote in the Mayoral elections. There is little doubt that the candidates have been doing their homework in an attempt to reach out to the Polish community as both present Mayor Ken Livingstone and his arch-rival Boris Johnson have proved.

So just how important is the Polish vote? Ken Livingstone of the Labour Party does not deny the strength of the Polish community in the oncoming elections:

'The Polish vote may be anywhere between 60 and 100 thousand and therefore it’s become a decisive vote. We all expect this to be a very close election.'

'So the Polish community will effectively determine the outcome.'

Boris Johnson from the Conservative Party is also taking the Polish contingent very seriously:

'Well, the Polish vote is extremely important and become more so since so many Poles have arrived with the accession of Poland and made such a fantastic contribution to London, and of course I’m listening to what Poles have to say and I’m taking their views very seriously.' 

Recently the British upper house, the Lords, published a report that immigration has not had that much of an impact on the economy. For both Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone, immigration to the city is important, and both were in favour of it.

Ken Livingstone: 'Well one of the things that defined my mayoralty is welcoming migrants here because they help to make a dynamic economy. London is the most open city in Europe and therefore I was delighted that rather than keep Poles out as so many European countries did, the Labour government allowed Poles to come here rather than erect barriers and cause delays.'

Boris Johnson: 'I reject the idea that immigrants don’t make a contribution to the British economy which is how some papers mistakenly reported. I’m in favour of immigration by the Polish community because it’s done such a fantastic amount of good for London and for Londoners. The most important thing if we’re going to have this kind of immigration is that we have to finances to cover it… You need a mayor of London who’s going to stand up and say central government has got to fund London properly.'

So just what have the candidates have in store for the Polish community and how have they been reaching out to London Poles? Both Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson have been visiting Polish centres around the capital:

Ken Livingstone: 'We’ve been involved in several meetings and visits to the Polish centres both in Hammersmith and Balham, and we’re particularly targeted much of our literature in Polish in order to reach the Polish community. But now that the Polish community has become one of the ten largest ethnic minority groups in London, we will do what we’ve done with all the others. From next year there will be a regular celebration every May of Polish culture on Trafalgar Square.'

Boris Johnson, it seems, wholeheartedly embraces Polish culture, being taken in by Polish cuisine: 'Of course I’m a huge fan of Polish vodka and I’m a huge admirer of Polish cooking. I went the other day to POSK [Polskie Osrodek Spoleczno Kulturalny – Polish Community Centre in Hammersmith] and gave a speech, and I had a wonderful tour of the museum there and talked about Poland’s historic contribution to Britain: if you think about it, it’s a fact that I think not many schoolchildren know in this country, that one Luftwaffe plane in seven was shot down in the Battle of Britain by Polish pilots, and I think people should recognise the huge contribution Poles have made to British freedom.'

Certainly, the election race is neck and neck. The latest estimates say that around 85 thousand Poles are registered to vote, but whether they will go out on May 1st and cast their ballot for the candidate of their choice remains to be seen. May the best man win!