PinkNews.co.uk to host interactive Mayor of London debates
Building on the huge popularity of our ‘Ask the Leaders’ feature during the General Election 2010, PinkNews.co.uk is to allow LGBT voters in London to quiz the leading candidates to become Mayor of London live in an interactive debate.
Over the next few weeks, the leading candidates for the post of Mayor of London will each host a live debate on PinkNews.co.uk, answering questions from lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans voters in London on the issues of the day, regardless of their relationship to sexuality and gender identity.
Current Mayor, Conservative candidate Boris Johnson, Labour candidate (and former Mayor) Ken Livingstone, Liberal Democrat candidate Brian Paddick, Green candidate Jenny Jones and independent candidate Siobhan Benita have all agreed to take part over the final few weeks of the campaign. PinkNews.co.uk has still to hear if the UK Independence Party (UKIP) candidate Lawrence Webb or the British National Party (BNP) candidate Carlos Cortiglia will talk live to PinkNews.co.uk readers.
The exact schedule of the live debates will be announced closer to the individual dates but will include at least half an hour of live text and video content from the candidates responding to previously and submitted and real time questions posted by PinkNews.co.uk readers.
PinkNews.co.uk editor Stephen Gray said: “Four years ago, we hosted a real world hustings of Mayoral candidates for 150 people. This time around, given the huge growth of social media, it seemed more appropriate to give the estimated one million LGBT voters from across the capital the opportunity to ask the questions most important to them from the comfort of their home or office. Given how close this year’s election will be, the LGBT vote will be crucial in deciding who takes over the running of London.”
You can submit questions now using the following methods:-
- Via the comments section on this page, simply make it clear which candidate you are addressing the question to or please state “all”
- Via Twitter using the following as an example guide “Do you support equal marriage? Boris Johnson @pinknews #pinkmayor” We need the questions to feature @pinknews to be detected by our live blog software
- Via Facebook by clicking on this link
On the day of the live debate, PinkNews.co.uk will select some previously submitted questions to kick start the debate, and then readers will be able to pose new or sumplementary questions to the candidate taking part that day in real time. The candidates and their campaign teams will not be informed of the expected questions in advance.
