2000 London mayoral election

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2000 London mayoral election
4 May 2000 2004  
Turnout34.43%
  Ken Livingstone in 2005.jpg Steven Norris.jpg
Candidate Ken Livingstone Steven Norris
Party Independent Conservative
First round vote667,877464,434
Percentage39.0%27.1%
Second round vote776,427564,137
Percentage57.9%42.1%

  Frank Dobson MP, crop.jpg Official portrait of Baroness Kramer crop 2, 2019.jpg
Candidate Frank Dobson Susan Kramer
Party Labour Liberal Democrats
First round vote223,884203,452
Percentage13.1%11.9%
Second round voteEliminatedEliminated
PercentageEliminatedEliminated

Mayor of London constituency results 2000.svg
First preference votes by London Assembly constituency. Blue constituencies are those with most first preference votes for Steven Norris and grey those for Ken Livingstone

Mayor before election

Position established

Elected Mayor

Ken Livingstone
Independent

The 2000 London mayoral election was held on 4 May 2000 to elect the Mayor of London. It was the first election to the office established that year; the idea of a London mayor of a Greater London Authority (GLA) had been included in Labour's 1997 election manifesto, and after their election a referendum in London was scheduled for May 1998, in which there was a 72% yes vote with a 34% turnout. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Electoral system

The election used a supplementary vote system, in which voters express a first and a second preference for candidates. [4]

This means that the winning candidate has the support of a majority of voters who expressed a preference among the top two. [5]

Results

Mayor of London election 4 May 2000 [6]
PartyCandidate1st round2nd round
 First round votes  Transfer votes 
TotalOf roundTransfersTotalOf round
Independent Ken Livingstone 667,87739.0%108,550776,42757.9%
Conservative Steven Norris 464,43427.1%99,703564,13742.1%
Labour Frank Dobson 223,88413.1%
Liberal Democrats Susan Kramer 203,45211.9%
CPA Ram Gidoomal 42,0602.4%
Green Darren Johnson 38,1212.2%
BNP Michael Newland 33,5692.0%
UKIP Damian Hockney 16,3241.0%
Pro-Motorist Small Shop Geoffrey Ben-Nathan 9,9560.6%
Independent Ashwin Tanna 9,0150.5%
Natural Law Geoffrey Clements 5,4700.3%
Independent win

Candidates

Candidate selection

Labour

With the first mayoral election scheduled for May 2000, Ken Livingstone stated his intention to stand as a potential Labour candidate for the position in March 1998. [1] Tony Blair did not want Livingstone as London Mayor, claiming the latter was one of those who "almost knocked [the party] over the edge of the cliff into extinction" during the 1980s. [1] [2] He and the Labour spin doctors organised a campaign against Livingstone to ensure that he was not selected, with Campbell and Sally Morgan unsuccessfully attempting to get Oona King to denounce Livingstone. [1] They failed to convince Mo Mowlam to stand for the mayorship, and instead encouraged the reluctant Frank Dobson to stand. [1] Recognising that a 'one member, one vote' election within the London Labour Party would probably see Livingstone selected over Dobson, Blair ensured that a third of the votes would come from the rank-and-file members, a third from the trades unions, and a third from Labour MPs and MEPs, the latter two of which he could pressure into voting for his own preferred candidate, something that Dobson was deeply uncomfortable with. [1] [3]

Information on the Blairite campaign against Livingstone became public, costing Dobson much support; nevertheless, while Livingstone won amongst party members (60% to Dobson's 40%) and among affiliated unions (72% to Dobson's 28%, a more than 2:1 vote), Dobson's landslide victory (173:27 in ratio) amongst MPs, MEPS and GLA candidates saw him win narrowly overall: forming a simple electoral college outcome of 51.5% to 48.5%. [1] [3] [15] Livingstone proclaimed Dobson to be "a tainted candidate" and stated his intention to run for the Mayoralty as an independent candidate. Aware that this would result in his expulsion from Labour, he publicly stated that "I have been forced to choose between the party I love and upholding the democratic rights of Londoners." [1]

First round
CandidateElected
members
(33.3%)
Individual
members
(33.3%)
Affiliated
supporters
(33.3%)
Total
Frank Dobson 86.5%35.3%26.9%
49.6%
Ken Livingstone 12.2%54.9%71.0%
46.0%
Glenda Jackson 1.4%9.8%2.1%
4.4%
Second round
CandidateElected
members
(33.3%)
Individual
members
(33.3%)
Affiliated
supporters
(33.3%)
Total
Frank Dobson Green check.svg86.5%40.1%28.0%
51.5%
Ken Livingstone 13.5%59.9%72.0%
48.5%

Conservatives

Steve Norris had lost the original selection ballot for Conservative candidate to Jeffrey Archer, but Archer stood down as a candidate when a newspaper printed a story accusing him of committing perjury during a 1987 libel trial [16] (he was later convicted and imprisoned). [17]

First round [15]
CandidateVotes %
Jeffrey Archer Green check.svg15,716
71.2%
Steven Norris 6,350
28.8%
Re-run [15]
CandidateVotes %
Steven Norris Green check.svg12,903
73.3%
Andrew Boff 4,712
26.7%

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