Independent mayoral hopeful Siobhan Benita has reacted with fury after the Ukip candidate urged his supporters to give the mother-of-two their second preference votes.
Ms Benita, 40, who worked as a top civil servant for 15 years and left Whitehall in January to run for Mayor, said: “I don’t want anything to do with Ukip. I don’t want any association with that party.
“I am in this election to win it. I am asking Londoners for their first preference votes.”
Ukip candidate Lawrence Webb, 45, a former electrician, had said Ms Benita was “something fresh in London”. He added: “If asked who I want my voters to give their second preference votes to I’m going to go for Siobhan Benita.
“The same old faces are exactly what is turning people off in this election. Siobhan is something different.”
Ms Benita, from New Malden, who has been advised during her campaign by former Cabinet Secretary Lord O’Donnell, responded: “Ukip are divisive. They are narrow-minded. I want to be an inclusive Mayor for all Londoners. Ukip do not share those values.
“I just don’t want to be associated with a party that is so different from me. Ukip just do not stand for any of the things that I stand for.”
