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CRITICISM: Labour's Val Shawcross has launched an attack on Boris Johnson

A SENIOR Labour candidate has accused London Mayor, Boris Johnson, of lacking the vision needed to run the capital.

The attack launched by Val Shawcross comes a week before the official Mayoral election campaign is due to begin on March 20.

Shawcross, who was picked as Ken Livingstone’s running mate in 2010, told The Voice: “A number of really important issues have slept back under Boris Johnson."

She said: “I think Boris Johnson’s lack of real experience in public life comes across. He is seen as an affable celebrity but he has not achieved anything in office.”

Mr Livingstone lost out to Boris Johnson in the Mayoral election in May 2008.

COMMENTS: Val Shawcross pictured here with forner London Mayor, ken Livingstone

Shawcross, a former Croydon council leader and Labour's London Assembly spokesperson on transport, said Boris “does not have a vision for London” and said that if she was elected, would instead run a campaign to combat “crime, unemployment and police cuts.”

She said: “[Boris] has managed to see through and carry on a few of Ken Livingstone’s project, for which there was cross party support. On transport he saw through the underground project. He is supporting the bike scheme, the cross rail project but really they were all budgeted by Ken Livingstone. He has really not done anything.”

She said she could sympathise with the number of people facing unemployment and revealed that her husband, Michael, was struggling to find work.

She told continued: “I would cut fares on London transport, while continuing to spend on transport upgrades.”

Shawcross is also supporting Livingstone’s proposal to reinstate the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) in the capital if he is elected on May 3.

About half a dozen other Labour-led councils have also agreed to support the plan, according to Livingstone's team.