Mayor of London

This article is about the directly elected mayor of Greater London. For the City of London mayor, see Lord Mayor of London.

Mayor of London
Incumbent Boris Johnson since 4 May 2008
Style	No courtesy title or style
Appointer	Electorate of Greater London
Term length	Four years
Inaugural holder	Ken Livingstone 4 May 2000
Formation	Greater London Authority Act 1999
Succession	4 May 2012
Deputy	Deputy Mayor of London Richard Barnes
Salary	£143,911
Website	london.gov.uk/mayor

The Mayor of London is an elected politician who, along with the London Assembly of 25 members, is accountable for the strategic government of Greater London. Conservative Boris Johnson has held the position since 4 May 2008. The position was previously held by Ken Livingstone from the creation of the role on 4 May 2000 until his succession by Johnson.

The role, created in 2000 after the London devolution referendum, was the first directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom. The Mayor of London is also referred to as the London Mayor, a form which helps to avoid confusion with the Lord Mayor of the City of London, the ancient and now mainly ceremonial role in the geographically smaller central region of the ancient City of London. The Mayor of London is the mayor of the entirety of Greater London (including the City).

Elections

Main article: London mayoral elections

The Mayor of London is elected by Supplementary Vote for a fixed term of four years, with elections taking place in May. As with most elected posts in the UK, there is a deposit, in this case of £10,000, returnable on the candidate's winning at least 5% of the first-choice votes cast.

2000

Main article: London mayoral election, 2000

The 2000 campaign was incident-filled. The eventual winner, Ken Livingstone, went back on an earlier pledge not to run as an independent after losing the Labour nomination to Frank Dobson. The Conservative Party had to replace Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare as their candidate when he was charged with perjury; Steve Norris was elected as his replacement.

London Mayoral Election Results 2000
	Name	Party	1st Preference Votes	%	2nd Preference Votes¹	%	Final	%²
	Ken Livingstone	Independent	667,877	39.0	178,809	12.6	776,427	57.9
	Steven Norris	Conservative	464,434	27.1	188,041	13.2	564,137	42.1
	Frank Dobson	Labour	223,884	13.1	228,095	16.0
	Susan Kramer	Liberal Democrat	203,452	11.9	404,815	28.5
	Ram Gidoomal	CPA	42,060	2.4	56,489	4.0
	Darren Johnson	Green	38,121	2.2	192,764	13.6
	Michael Newland	BNP	33,569	2.0	45,337	3.2
	Damian Hockney	UKIP	16,324	1.0	43,672	3.1
	Geoffrey Ben-Nathan	Pro-Motorist Small Shop	9,956	0.6	23,021	1.6
	Ashwin Tanna	Independent	9,015	0.5	41,766	2.9
	Geoffrey Clements	Natural Law	5,470	0.3	18,185	1.3

London

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of London

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2004

Main article: London mayoral election, 2004

In 2004, the second election was held. After being re-admitted to the Labour Party, Ken Livingstone was their official candidate. He won re-election after second preference votes were counted, with Steve Norris again coming second.

London Mayoral Election Results 2004
	Name	Party	1st Preference Votes	%	2nd Preference Votes	%	Final	%
	Ken Livingstone	Labour	685,541	35.7	250,517	13.0	828,380	55.4
	Steven Norris	Conservative	542,423	28.2	222,559	11.6	667,178	44.6
	Simon Hughes	Liberal Democrat	284,645	14.8	465,704	24.3
	Frank Maloney	UKIP	115,665	6.0	193,157	10.0
	Lindsey German	RESPECT	61,731	3.2	63,294	3.3
	Julian Leppert	BNP	58,405	3.0	70,736	3.7
	Darren Johnson	Green	57,331	2.9	208,686	10.9
	Ram Gidoomal	CPA	41,696	2.2	56,721	2.9
	Lorna Reid	IWCA	9,542	0.5	39,678	2.1
	Tammy Nagalingam	Independent	6,692	0.4	20,391	1.1

2008

The incumbent Labour Mayor, Ken Livingstone was defeated by Conservative candidate Boris Johnson becoming London's 2nd Mayor.

Main article: London mayoral election, 2008

London Mayoral Election Results 2008
	Name	Party	1st Preference Votes	%	2nd Preference Votes1	%	Final2	%3
	Boris Johnson	Conservative	1,043,761	42.48 (+14.3%)	257,792	10.49	1,168,738	53.2
	Ken Livingstone	Labour	893,877	36.38 (+0.7%)	303,198	12.34	1,028,966	46.8
	Brian Paddick	Liberal Democrat	236,685	9.63 (–5.2%)	641,412	26.11
	Siân Berry	Green	77,374	3.15 (+0.3%)	331,727	13.50
	Richard Barnbrook	British National Party	69,710	2.84 (–0.2%)	128,609	5.23
	Alan Craig	Christian Peoples Alliance	39,249	1.6 (–0.6%)	80,140	3.26
	Gerard Batten	UKIP	22,422	0.91 (–5.1%)	113,651	4.63
	Lindsey German	Left List	16,796	0.68	35,057	1.43
	Matt O'Connor4 (withdrawn)	English Democrats	10,695	0.44	73,538	2.99
	Winston McKenzie	Independent	5,389	0.22	38,954	1.59

¹Second preference votes are only used to elect the mayor if no single candidate receives more than 50% of the vote. Only the top two candidates receive the second preference votes.

²On papers where the 1st and 2nd choice votes are for the top two candidates, the 2nd choice votes are not counted.^[1]

³Percentage figures are not officially published on the final votes, they are produced here for illustration and are calculated by dividing the candidate's final vote by the total of final votes. When based on the total votes cast, however, the figures are 48.4% and 42.6%.

⁴Matt O'Connor withdrew from the election in the week prior to polling day but his name remained on the ballot paper.^[2]

2012 Election

Main article: London mayoral election, 2012

Candidate selection process

Conservative Party

It had been speculated that Johnson might choose not to run for re-election and might instead stand for Parliament in the next general election with a view to succeeding David Cameron as the Leader of the Conservative Party but in September 2010 he announced that he planned to stand for re-election.

Labour Party

Prospective Labour candidates had until 18 June 2010 to announce their decision to stand for the party's nomination. The names were shortlisted by a panel of national and London party representatives on 24 June, before a series of hustings across the capital. An electoral college, made up half of votes by London party members and half by members of affiliated organisations, selected the candidate. Former Mayor Ken Livingstone and former Labour MP Oona King both ran for the Labour Party's nomination^[3] as did Seton During and Emmanuel Okoro. Mr During is a chartered engineer and a former councillor in Enfield, while Mr Okoro is an artist.^[4] MP David Lammy, former cabinet minister Sadiq Khan, former Home Secretary Alan Johnson,^[5][6] MP Jon Cruddas, businessman Alan Sugar and former cabinet minister Peter Mandelson were also rumoured as potential candidates^[7] but did not stand. Lammy endorsed Livingstone's candidacy ^[8][9] Ken Livingstone won the Labour Party nomination on 24 September 2010 with 68.6% of the vote to 31.4% for King. ^[10]

Liberal Democrats

Caroline Pidgeon, the leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, was a possible candidate for her party's nomination but said it was not the right time for her to stand. Susan Kramer was seen to be a possible candidate but said she was standing for Lib Dem President. Brian Paddick, who was the party's 2008 nominee, said he wanted to serve in the party but ruled himself out. Lembit Öpik, the well-known former MP who lost his Montgomeryshire seat in a surprise defeat in the 2010 general election,^[11] was also considered to be a likely possible candidate.^[12]

On the 02 September 2011, it was announced that Brian Paddick had won the race beating, Lembit Opik, Brian Haley and Mike Tuffrey.

List of Mayors

Colour key
(for political parties)

  Independent

  Labour

  Conservative

Name		Portrait	Entered office	Left office	Political party
	Ken Livingstone		4 May 2000	4 May 2008	Independent (2000–2004)
					Labour 2004–2008
	Boris Johnson		4 May 2008	Incumbent	Conservative

Initiatives

Initiatives taken by Ken Livingstone as Mayor of London included the London congestion charge on private vehicles using city centre London on weekdays, the creation of the London Climate Change Agency, the London Energy Partnership and the founding of the international Large Cities Climate Leadership Group, now known as C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group. The Congestion charge led to many new buses being introduced across London.

They have also included the London Partnerships Register which was a voluntary scheme without legal force for same-sex couples to register their partnership, and paved the way for the introduction by the United Kingdom Parliament of civil partnerships. Unlike civil partnerships, the London Partnerships Register was open to heterosexual couples who favour a public commitment other than marriage.

As Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone was also a supporter of the London Olympics in 2012, and is known to encourage sport in London; especially when sport can be combined with helping UK charities-like The London Marathon and British 10K charity races. However, Livingstone, in a Mayoral election debate on the BBC's Question Time (TV series) programme in April 2008 did state that the primary reason he supported the Olympic bid was to secure funding for the redevelopment of the East End of London. In the summer of 2007 he brought the Tour de France cycle race to London.

In May 2008, Boris Johnson introduced a new transport safety initiative to put 440 high-visibility police officers on bus hubs and the immediate vicinity.^[13] A ban on alcohol on underground, bus, Docklands Light Railway, and tram services and stations across the capital was announced.^[14]

Also in May 2008, Boris Johnson announced the closure of The Londoner newspaper, saving approximately £2.9 million. A percentage of this saving will be spent on planting 10,000 new street trees.^[15]

Salary

The Mayor of London's current salary is £143,911 per year, which is similar to that of a government Cabinet minister.^[16]

See also

London portal

• Deputy Mayor of London
• Foreign relations of the Mayor of London
• Lord Mayor of the City of London

References

1. ^ Results: Mayor London Elects
2. ^ O'Connor pulls out of mayor race BBC
3. ^ "Ken Livingstone launches bid for new term as London mayor", The Guardian, 1 June 2010
4. ^ "Labou London mayor candidates announced", BBC News, June 18, 2010
5. ^ "Will Jon Cruddas enter the race for London mayor?", New Statesman, 27 May 2010
6. ^ "Will it be Boris Johnson v Alan Johnson in 2012?", New Statesman, 18 May 2010
7. ^ "Cruddas for London mayor?", New Statesman, 19 January 2010
8. ^ "London's best hope is Livingstone.", Guardian, 1 June 2010
9. ^ http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23654514-sir-alan-sugar-is-asked-to-run-for-mayor.do
10. ^ Mulholland, Helene (24 September 2010). "Ken Livingstone beats Oona King to Labour nomination for London mayor". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/24/ken-livingstone-oona-king-labour-london-mayor. 
11. ^ Chris Smyth (7 May 2010). "Lembit Opik loses seat to Conservatives". The Times (London). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7119009.ece. 
12. ^ Tom Meltzer (3 June 2010). "Lembit Opik, standup comedian". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jun/03/lembit-opik-standup-comedian. 
13. ^ GLA Press Release - New action on transport safety
14. ^ GLA Press Release - Plan to ban alcohol on the transport network
15. ^ GLA Press Release - Closure of The Londoner newspaper
16. ^ Greater London Authority - Annual Budget

External links

• Mayor of London website
• Page about the process of nomination