"No-one really believed he was racist, or he would not have beaten Livingstone to become twice Mayor of the otherwise solidly Labour London.
It was all smear tactics, and it failed miserably"

"No-one?" Well I believe that hundreds of thousands voted against Boris. Are you a mind-reader? Maybe you mean "no-one important," i.e. "no-one who isn't at least as right-wing as me." I should also remind you that four million people voted for the overtly-racist UKIP. Racism doesn't necessarily seem to put a certain type of person off...