Boris Johnson has been re-elected as Mayor of London, receiving 1,054,811 total votes. The Labour candidate Ken Livingstone received 992,273 total votes.
Boris Johnson has been re-elected as Mayor of London, receiving 1,054,811 total votes. The Labour candidate Ken Livingstone received 992,273 total votes.
In his victory speech, Johnson said that London had been in a “neo-Victorian surge” because of investment made during his last administration in public transport. Johnson added that he will see through the apprenticeship program that Londoners, especially young Londoners, are ready to take on the created jobs.
Johnson also paid tribute to his party colleagues who lost seats in Assembly elections, and congratulated those who gained seats. Johnson added that visitors to London during the Olympics will find an administration working with government and ensuring Londoners were protected and a London where Olympic and Paralympic stadiums had been completed on time. “I will continue to fight for a good deal for Londoners,” Johnson said. Johnson paid tribute to Livingstone, saying that his policies made during his time in office were creative and original.
Livingstone said that this is the defeat that he most regretted, and the “worst time in 80 years”. Livingstone added that this would be his last election and would not run for office after tonight. Livingstone previously served as Mayor from 2000 to 2008, after the office was created when legislation was passed in 1999.
Livingstone added that this election was not about the competition between himself and Johnson, but of the lives of eight million Londoners. He added that Johnson’s victory also settled the outcome of the next leadership election of the Conservative party. Livingstone added that today’s politics are at a turning point because of the free market agenda that was pushed by the Conservatives. “Our children must be able to find jobs and homes in London and the rest of Britain,” Livingstone said.
The independent candidate Siobhan Benita gained 83,914 votes, the BNP’s Carlos Cortiglia gained 28,751 votes, and the Liberal Democrat candidate Brian Paddick gained 91,774 votes. The third place standing went to the Green Party candidate Jenny Jones, who gained 98,913. “It means a huge amount,” Jones told BBC Radio 5 live after the announcement. Jones added that even though the Greens were in third place, the party could pressure Johnson. “He needs some fresh ideas,” Jones said.
Benita said according to the BBC that she plans to run again in 2016, adding people had been “disillusioned with party politics” and were eager to have “a new type of public leader”.
The result came minutes before midnight May 4 due to a delay in the processing of some ballot papers, specifically in the Brent and Harrow constituency. A spokeswoman for London Elects, which oversees the voting systems in London elections, said some of the ballots could not have been read, and had to go to be manually entered. They were sent, she added, to storage instead of to the area of manual facility. They had been retrieved, and noted that it was essential that all votes had been counted.
John Kennedy, a cab driver based in London, said that the issue surrounding the publication of Livingstone’s tax records gave Johnson the victory. “Ken never recovered from that affair,” Kennedy said.
