The leading candidates for the powerful post of London mayor clashed at a Reuters Newsmaker event on Tuesday over their competence to run the capital's 11 billion pound ($22 bln) budget. Ken Livingstone, a one-time socialist firebrand seeking a third four-year term as mayor, belittled his Conservative rival Boris Johnson -- a former journalist -- for a lack of administrative experience.
The winner of the May 1 election will be responsible for preparations for the 2012 London Olympics as well as overseeing policing, housing and the city's sprawling transport network.
Livingstone, sniping at his Eton-educated rival, said Johnson's hardest decision while editing the right-leaning Spectator magazine had been where to have lunch. "You know what you are going to get with me," said Livingstone. "We will carry on with the programs we have set out. There is clearly a bigger risk with somebody who hasn't been tried and tested."
Johnson, 43, a backbench MP who says he is the only candidate with private sector business experience, in turn derided Livingstone's record in office since 2000. "I find it unbelievable that he is fighting this election on competence and ability to run London when he has presided over staggering waste and mismanagement," he said.