Today I got a response from the Met regarding their advertising spending and the role that the Londoner plays in it. I am grateful to Des Stout in public affairs for laying the picture out so clearly.
It appears that the Met spent £2.1 million overall of which £250K was given to the Mayor for the Londoner.
Of this relatively small budget it is worrying to see that almost a quarter was devoted to a fairly blatantly political campaign. In January the London Mayor announced an acceleration of the Safer Neighbourhoods programme to coincide with the pan-London local election in May. The Met spent £485K in February and March to promote this commitment (which was unmet in many areas including Northfield). Every Labour campaign leaflet I saw referred to these teams. What is more the figure is considerably more than the £300K figure quoted to me Commander Hitchcock over a month after I asked him for it back in early February.
Phil Taylor 