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 MP since 4 May 2008
Style	Mr Mayor, Sir
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 Roger Evans
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 the mayor of the entirety of Greater London, including the City of London, for which there is also the ceremonial Lord Mayor of the City of London. Each London Borough also has a ceremonial mayor or, in Hackney, Lewisham, Newham or Tower Hamlets, an elected mayor.

Background

The Greater London Council, the elected governance for Greater London, was abolished in 1986 following the Local Government Act 1985. Strategic functions were split off to various joint arrangements. Londoners voted in a referendum in 1998 to create new governance structures for Greater London. The directly elected Mayor of London was created by the Greater London Authority Act 1999 in 2000 as part of the reforms.

Elections

Main article: London mayoral 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 which is 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 selected as his replacement.

Mayor of London election 4 May 2000
Party		Candidate	1st Round	%	2nd Round	Total	First Round Votes  Transfer Votes
	Independent	Ken Livingstone	667,877	39.0%	108,540	776,417	​ ​
	Conservative	Steven Norris	464,434	27.1%	99,703	564,137	​ ​
	Labour	Frank Dobson	223,884	13.1%			​ ​
	Liberal Democrat	Susan Kramer	203,452	11.9%			​ ​
	Christian Peoples	Ram Gidoomal	43,060	2.4%			​ ​
	Green	Darren Johnson	38,121	2.2%			​ ​
	BNP	Michael Newland	33,569	2.0%			​ ​
	UKIP	Damian Hockney	16,324	1.0%			​ ​
	Pro-Motorist Small Shop	Geoffrey Ben-Nathan	9,956	0.6%			​ ​
	Independent	Ashwin Tanna	9,015	0.5%			​ ​
	Natural Law	Geoffrey Clements	5,470	0.3%			​ ​
	Independent win

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.

Mayor of London election 10 June 2004
Party		Candidate	1st Round	%	2nd Round	Total	First Round Votes  Transfer Votes
	Labour	Ken Livingstone	685,548	36.8%	142,842	828,390	​ ​
	Conservative	Steven Norris	542,423	29.1%	124,757	667,180	​ ​
	Liberal Democrat	Simon Hughes	284,647	15.3%			​ ​
	UKIP	Frank Maloney	115,666	6.2%			​ ​
	Respect	Lindsey German	61,731	3.3%			​ ​
	BNP	Julian Leppert	58,407	3.1%			​ ​
	Green	Darren Johnson	57,332	3.1%			​ ​
	Christian Peoples	Ram Gidoomal	31,698	2.2%			​ ​
	Independent Working Class	Lorna Reid	9,452	0.5%			​ ​
	Independent	Tammy Nagalingam	6,692	0.4%			​ ​
	Labour gain from Independent

2008

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

Main article: London mayoral election, 2008

Mayor of London election 1 May 2008
Party		Candidate	1st Round	%	2nd Round	Total	First Round Votes  Transfer Votes
	Conservative	Boris Johnson	1,043,761	43.2%	124,977	1,168,738	​ ​
	Labour	Ken Livingstone	893,887	37.0%	134,089	1,027,976	​ ​
	Liberal Democrat	Brian Paddick	235,585	9.8%			​ ​
	Green	Siân Berry	77,347	3.2%			​ ​
	BNP	Richard Barnbrook	69,710	3.2%			​ ​
	Christian Peoples	Alan Craig	39,249	1.6%			​ ​
	UKIP	Gerard Batten	22,422	1.2%			​ ​
	Respect	Lindsey German	16,796	0.7%			​ ​
	English Democrats	Matt O'Connor	10,695	0.4%			​ ​
	Independent	Winston McKenzie	5,389	0.2%			​ ​
	Conservative gain from Labour

2012

Conservative Mayor Boris Johnson was reelected to a second term in office, defeating former Labour mayor Ken Livingstone. Livingstone announced his retirement from politics in his concession speech.

Main article: London mayoral election, 2012

Mayor of London election 3 May 2012
Party		Candidate	1st Round	%	2nd Round	Total	First Round Votes  Transfer Votes
	Conservative	Boris Johnson	971,931	44.0%	82,880	1,054,811	​ ​
	Labour	Ken Livingstone	889,918	40.3%	102,355	992,273	​ ​
	Green	Jenny Jones	98,913	4.5%			​ ​
	Liberal Democrat	Brian Paddick	91,774	4.2%			​ ​
	Independent	Siobhan Benita	83,914	3.8%			​ ​
	UKIP	Lawrence Webb	43,274	2.0%			​ ​
	BNP	Carlos Cortiglia	28,751	1.3%			​ ​
	Conservative hold

2016

Main article: London mayoral election, 2016

The 2016 London mayoral election is scheduled for 5 May 2016.

Incumbent Mayor Boris Johnson is not running for re-election for a third term in office, as he was elected the Member of Parliament for the Conservative Party in Uxbridge and South Ruislip in the 2015 general election.

List of Mayors

Colour key (for political parties)
Independent   Labour   Conservative

Name		Picture	Term of office		Elected	Political party	Previous occupations
	Ken Livingstone		4 May 2000	4 May 2008	2000	Independent	Technician at the Chester Beatty cancer research laboratory Leader of the Greater London Council MP for Brent East
					2004	Labour
	Boris Johnson		4 May 2008	Incumbent	2008 2012	Conservative	Graduate Trainee: Wolverhampton Express & Star, The Times Writer: The Times, The Daily Telegraph Columnist: The Spectator, GQ Editor: The Spectator MP for Henley-on-Thames

Powers and functions

Most powers are derived from the Greater London Authority Act 1999 with additional functions coming from the Greater London Authority Act 2007, the Localism Act 2011 and Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011.

The main functions are:

• Strategic planning, including housing, waste management, the environment and production of the London Plan
• Refuse or permit planning permission on strategic grounds
• Transport policy, delivered by functional body Transport for London
• Fire and emergency planning, delivered by functional body London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority
• Policing and crime policy, delivered by functional body Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (before 2012 by functional body Metropolitan Police Authority)
• Economic development, delivered directly by the Greater London Authority through subsidiary company GLA Land and Property (before 2012 by functional body London Development Agency)
• Power to create development corporations, such as the London Legacy Development Corporation

The remaining local government functions are performed by the London borough councils. There is some overlap, for example the borough councils are responsible for waste management, but the mayor is required to produce a waste management strategy. In 2010 the Mayor launched an initiative in partnership with the Multi-academy Trust AET to transform schools across London. This led to the establishment of London Academies Enterprise Trust (LAET) which was intended to be a group of 10 Academies, but it only reached a group of 4 before the Mayor withdrew in 2013.

Service	Greater London Authority	London borough councils
Education		Y
Housing	Y	Y
Planning applications		Y
Strategic planning	Y	Y
Transport planning	Y	Y
Passenger transport	Y
Highways	Y	Y
Fire	Y
Social services		Y
Libraries		Y
Leisure and recreation		Y
Waste collection		Y
Waste disposal		Y
Environmental health		Y
Revenue collection		Y

Initiatives

Ken Livingstone

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. In 2003 Livingstone oversaw the introduction of the Oyster Card electronic ticketing system for Transport for London services.

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 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.

Boris Johnson

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. A ban on alcohol on underground, bus, Docklands Light Railway, and tram services and stations across the capital was announced.

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.

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

Also in 2010 Boris Johnson opened the Santander Cycles formerly the (Barclays Cycle Hire) scheme with 5,000 bicycles available for hire across London. The scheme gained the nickname of "Boris Bikes" by both Londoners and members of the various media.

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. 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, Muswell Hill and Bexley Town Centre. The recipients of Phase 2 funding are still to be announced.

In January 2013 Boris Johnson appointed journalist Andrew Gilligan as the first Cycling Commissioner for London.

In March 2013 Boris Johnson announced £1 billion of investment in infrastructure to make cycling safer in London, including a 15-mile (24 km) East-West segregated 'Crossrail for bikes'.

In the General Election of 7 May 2015, Boris Johnson was elected as MP for Uxbridge and Ruislip South with 50.2% of the vote on a turnout of 63.4%. For this he receives the basic MP's salary of £67,060 per annum plus expenses to cover staff, office expenses, accommodation if he does not have a London home and travel.

Salary

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

See also

• Deputy Mayor of London
• Foreign relations of the Mayor of London
• Lord Mayor of the City of London
• London mayoral election, 2016

External links

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