Labour’s Tessa Jowell says she’ll ban sexist adverts from the Tube if she becomes Mayor

There are been a number of social media campaigns against adverts

A Protein World advert displayed in an underground station in London which says "Are you beach body ready?". (PA)

A politician running to become Labour’s candidate in next year’s Mayor of London election says she will ban sexist adverts from the Tube if she is elected.

Tessa Jowell, a former Olympics minister, said Transport for London would be made to draw up tougher guidelines than at present.

“Women ought to be able to travel in an environment which doesn’t constantly demean them or present an unrealistic image of women’s bodies,” she told the capital’s Evening Standard newspaper.

Dame Tessa unveiled her campaign in Brixton (Tessa for Londoners/PA Wire)

The proposed policy comes after a series of social media outcries against demeaning adverts on the Tube.

One controversial advert, from health food marketed Protein World, featured a picture of a woman in a bikini asking “are you beach body ready?”.

The Advertising Standards Agency ruled that the adverts were not offensive or overly sexual and said no action had to be take on them.

Ms Jowell described such commercial material as “overly sexualised” and “unrealistic”.

The politician, who stood down as an MP at the general election in preparation for her bid, is believed to be the frontrunner in the race for the Labour nomination.

Ms Jowell has also pledged to tax empty homes and set up a mayoral agency to directly build homes in the capital.

The other candidates for Labour’s selection are Christian Wolmar, a transport journalist, Sadiq Khan, the MP for Tooting, David Lammy, the MP for Tottenham, Gareth Thomas, the MP for Harrow, and Diane Abbott, the MP for Hackney and Stoke Newington.

The winning candidate will represent their party in the race for City Hall, which takes place in 2016.