It was the suburbs that won it for Boris last year. Across London the outer London suburbs voted in significant numbers for Boris rather than Ken and whilst Harrow was perhaps an exception (with Navin Shah from Harrow Labour’s one gain) any would-be mayoral campaign needs to champion London’s suburbs as much as thinking about the inner city.

In truth, Boris has done very little for the suburbs. He is allowing councils like Harrow to continue to encourage major new housing developments even if they are completely out of character with the local area. Hence Harrow Council quickly encouraging a twenty storeys plus skyscraper proposal for Harrow town centre.

Boris too, despite his relentless focus on crime during his campaign, particularly knife crime, has done little to embrace the Metropolitan Police since. The resignations of two of the Mets most senior police officers have been his most memorable contributions to tackling crime to date. His promise of a 20% cut in crime and the strategy to achieve it are notable for their absence.

In suburbs like Harrow Boris’ campaign promise on crime reads like empty rhetoric now. The new police station in Harrow that our police need, and we were working hard to achieve, has been put on hold by the new Mayor. Harrow’s current police station, increasingly inaccessible with reduced parking and a tiny reception area, doesn’t have sufficient police cells and simply isn’t fit for modern 21st century policing. The lack of explanation for the Boris’ delay is both bewildering and deeply frustrating.

The promise too of reforms to the London Development Agency, promised in the wake of media claims about mismanagement, again have born little fruit for businesses in the suburbs. Organisations doing a valuable job mentoring and supporting small and micro businesses in Harrow can’t get support from the Mayor, which in the middle of a global recession is disappointing to put it mildly.

It is however the lack of a clear overarching vision for London that is the most significant weakness in Boris’ record to date, and this is where Labour’s opportunity to win the Mayoralty back rests.

Labour’s 2012 campaign will have to champion the suburbs, and focus on crime. It will have to promise to make City Hall less remote, be bolder on the environment and more ambitious on public transport. The Mayoral candidate should also, the electorate allowing, commit to stand for only two terms.