The leading contenders in the mayoral race visited Edmonton this week where the deaths of five youngsters killed so far this year have dominated headlines.

Tory candidate Boris Johnson was in Edmonton on Monday and Labour's Ken Livingstone came to Freezywater yesterday.

And the past loomed large over both men's vision for the capital's future.

Mr Livingstone addressed a lively 150-strong audience in St George's Church Hall, Hertford Road, with youth violence dominating much of the debate after the deaths of five youngsters killed in Enfield's streets so far this year.

The current Mayor of London spoke of a return to traditional values. He said: "There is a deep problem. I think we have lost a generation.

"Society used to enforce a strong moral code. I was taught to feel bad when I did something wrong. Society must produce a sense of duty in its young people.

"We have to make sure the police and local authorities can do that because the parents were not taught that themselves.

"These are the kids of the 80s generation who were told you are number one, get your nose in the trough'."

Flanked by Enfield North MP Joan Ryan and Enfield and Haringey's Greater London Authority (GLA) member Joanne McCartney, Mr Livingstone justified the annual above-inflation increases in tax that residents pay to the GLA by stating that 80 per cent of it goes to the police.

Battling the perceptions of much of the audience he said: "Crime is coming down. I know there is a lot of debate about the figures, but murder is down.

"I put your tax up by above the rate of inflation every year to pay for the police. When I came in the chief of the Met said he needed 35,000 officers. We achieved that figure last year."

The previous day Mr Johnson vowed to take on the gangs and slammed his rival.

He described the mayor as the head of a "bullying" and "Marxist cabal" at City Hall that is tax happy and riddled by croneyism.

At the Bounces Road Community Hall, on a walkabout with Conservative leader David Cameron, he said: "Listen to the parents of murdered Edmonton teen Iyke Nmezu.

"It's time we had a mayor who used the weight of his office to campaign against the bureaucracy and form filling that keeps too many police from giving us the protection we deserve.

"I believe we can get more police out on the street."

Check out our election section for the full list of candidates