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	First Thursday in May quadrennially
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

The Mayor is elected by the supplementary vote method 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

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

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

Sovereign Elizabeth II Greater London Authority Mayor Boris Johnson Deputy Richard Barnes London Assembly Mayoral elections Constituencies City of London Corporation Lord Mayor Sheriff Wards Court of Aldermen Parliament of the United Kingdom 1998 referendum GLA Act 1999 GLA Act 2007 Elections Constituencies European Parliament Elections European Parliament constituency Committee of the Regions Subsidiarity Boroughs Middle Temple Inner Temple

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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.

2008

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

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

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.

On 4 May 2012, Boris Johnson was re-elected Mayor of London.

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, former cabinet minister James Purnell, 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 former MP who lost his Montgomeryshire seat in the 2010 general election,^[11] was also considered to be a likely possible candidate.^[12]

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

² Designation for UK Independence Party candidate^[13]

List of Mayors

Name		Portrait	Elected	Term of office		Political party
	Ken Livingstone		2000	4 May 2000	4 May 2008	Independent
			2004			Labour
	Boris Johnson		2008 2012	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.^[14] A ban on alcohol on underground, bus, Docklands Light Railway, and tram services and stations across the capital was announced.^[15]

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.^[16]

In 2010 Boris Johnson extended the coverage of Oyster Card electronic ticketing to all National Rail overground train services ^[17]

Also in 2010 Boris Johnson opened the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme with 5,000 bicycles available for hire across London. Although it should be noted that the plans for this were created under Ken Livingstone's administration.

In 2011 Boris Johnson set up the Outer London Fund, a money pot of up to £50 million designed to help facilitate better, more effective local high streets.^[18] Areas in London were given the chance to submit proposals for two separate pots of money, which would be granted to them if their bid was successful. Successful bids for Phase 1 included Enfield,^[19] Muswell Hill ^[20] and Bexley Town Centre.^[21] The recipients of Phase 2 funding are still to be announced.

Salary

The Mayor of London's current salary is £143,911 per year, which is similar to that of a government Cabinet minister.^[22]

See also

London portal

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

References

External links

• Mayor of London website
• Page about the process of nomination Archived 5 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine