London - The race for Mayor of London stepped up a pace yesterday after Baroness Thatcher gave unequivocal backing to Mr Jeffrey Archer.
Her strong personal endorsement came as a new opinion poll put Mr Archer in second place, at 23 per cent, to the frontrunner, Mr Ken Livingstone, Labour MP for Brent East, at 40 per cent.
But the Mori poll in the Sunday Telegraph suggested the Prime Minister, Mr Blair risks handing victory to the Tories if, as expected, he refuses to give his backing to Mr Livingstone to stand.
