Boris Johnson made a bid for the capital's ethnic minority vote today by promising his policies would help Londoners of all backgrounds.

The Tory candidate said his plans to tackle crime and improve transport and housing would lead to a better quality of life across the city.

He accused Ken Livingstone of dividing communities and said the Mayor did not have an automatic right to black and Asian votes.

Mr Johnson was speaking ahead of an Operation Black Vote event in Lambeth where he joined the Mayor, Lib-Dem candidate Brian Paddick and Green Sian Berry to oppose the BNP.

He said: "The Mayor must represent the interests of all communities in London. The major issues such as crime, transport and housing affect all Londoners regardless of the community they belong to. No one candidate has the right to assume any community will automatically vote for them - every vote must be earned. The current Labour Mayor has run out of ideas and has concentrated on politics of division rather uniting people." However, he faces an uphill struggle to convince some ethnic minority voters that he would be the best candidate.

Mr Johnson has come under fire for describing black babies as "piccaninnies" although he has since apologised.

Mr Livingstone has topped the polls when voters were asked which candidate would best represent ethnic minority communities. The Mayor said London could not afford "to go into reverse gear" on community relations and had to stop the BNP "in its tracks".

He added that the party needed only five per cent of the vote to win a seat on the London Assembly, which it would then use to "spread their message of hate".

"Stopping the BNP means every Londoner who opposes racism and bigotry needs to vote on 1 May. Every additional vote cast makes the BNP's five per cent hurdle harder to reach," he said. "It's very simple - if the anti-racist majority votes, the minority of BNP votes will be marginalised. But if we don't vote, the BNP will get elected to the Assembly."

The BNP had called on its supporters to give their second preference vote to MrJohnson. But he rejected the endorsement, saying: "It is the responsibility of all candidates to unite in opposing the BNP."

At the Operation Black Vote event, MrLivingstone was asked about his previous attempt to link Mr Johnson with the BNP in the public mind. He shrugged off the question, saying: "We stand together, Boris and Brian and Si‚n and myself, united in saying to London, 'Vote for any legitimate candidate.'"

Operation Black Vote confirmed Mr Livingstone's former race advisor Lee Jasper was still chair of the organisation but that his presence at the event would have been a distraction. Later, the Mayor joined Labour's deputy leader Harriet Harman in her Peckham constituency in a bid to boost turnout among black voters.

Ms Harman refused to say whether losing London would damage the Labour Party. She said: "We're not taking anything for granted and we're emphasising what Ken will do if re-elected."

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