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The London mayoral election for the office of mayor of London takes place every four years. The first election was held in May 2000, and five subsequent elections have taken place. The latest mayoral election took place in 2021; it was initially going to be held in 2020, but was postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [1]
The electoral system used for London mayor elections is first-past-the-post, where voters cast their vote for a candidate of their choice and the candidate who receives the most votes wins.
Prior to the Elections Act 2022, elections were held using the supplementary vote system, where voters express a first and second choice of candidate. If no candidate receives an absolute majority of first choice votes, all but the two leading candidates are eliminated, and the votes of those eliminated redistributed according to their second choice votes to determine the winner.
As with most elected posts in the United Kingdom, a candidate must pay a deposit to run in the election. The current deposit a candidate must pay is £10,000, which is returned if the candidate wins at least 5% of the first preference votes cast. The winner is elected for a fixed term of four years; there are no restrictions on the number of terms a Mayor may serve. Elections take place in May.
Incumbent Labour mayor Sadiq Khan won re-election against Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey.
| Mayor of London election 6 May 2021 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | First round votes Transfer votes | ||||
| Total | Of round | Transfers | Total | Of round | ||||
| Labour | Sadiq Khan | 1,013,721 | 40.0% | 192,313 | 1,206,034 | 55.2% | | |
| Conservative | Shaun Bailey | 893,051 | 35.3% | 84,550 | 977,601 | 44.8% | | |
| Green | Siân Berry | 197,976 | 7.8% | | ||||
| Liberal Democrats | Luisa Porritt | 111,716 | 4.4% | | ||||
| Independent | Niko Omilana | 49,628 | 2.0% | | ||||
| Reclaim | Laurence Fox | 47,634 | 1.9% | | ||||
| London Real | Brian Rose | 31,111 | 1.2% | | ||||
| Rejoin EU | Richard Hewison | 28,012 | 1.1% | | ||||
| Count Binface | Count Binface | 24,775 | 1.0% | | ||||
| Women's Equality | Mandu Reid | 21,182 | 0.8% | | ||||
| Let London Live | Piers Corbyn | 20,604 | 0.8% | | ||||
| Animal Welfare | Vanessa Hudson | 16,826 | 0.7% | | ||||
| UKIP | Peter Gammons | 14,393 | 0.6% | | ||||
| Independent | Farah London | 11,869 | 0.5% | | ||||
| Heritage | David Kurten | 11,025 | 0.4% | | ||||
| Independent | Nims Obunge | 9,682 | 0.4% | | ||||
| SDP | Steve Kelleher | 8,764 | 0.3% | | ||||
| Renew | Kam Balayev | 7,774 | 0.3% | | ||||
| Independent | Max Fosh | 6,309 | 0.2% | | ||||
| Burning Pink | Valerie Brown | 5,305 | 0.2% | | ||||
| Labour hold | ||||||||
The 2016 London mayoral election was held on 5 May 2016. [2] The results were announced on 7 May at 00:30, despite British television news channel Sky News announcing Sadiq Khan as the winner hours earlier.
The incumbent mayor, Boris Johnson, did not run for re election for a third term in office, as he was elected the member of parliament for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in the 2015 General Election.
| Mayor of London election 5 May 2016 [3] | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | First round votes Transfer votes | ||||
| Total | Of round | Transfers | Total | Of round | ||||
| Labour | Sadiq Khan | 1,148,716 | 44.2% | 161,427 | 1,310,143 | 56.8% | | |
| Conservative | Zac Goldsmith | 909,755 | 35.0% | 84,859 | 994,614 | 43.2% | | |
| Green | Siân Berry | 150,673 | 5.8% | | ||||
| Liberal Democrats | Caroline Pidgeon | 120,005 | 4.6% | | ||||
| UKIP | Peter Whittle | 94,373 | 3.6% | | ||||
| Women's Equality | Sophie Walker | 53,055 | 2.0% | | ||||
| Respect | George Galloway | 37,007 | 1.4% | | ||||
| Britain First | Paul Golding | 31,372 | 1.2% | | ||||
| CISTA | Lee Harris | 20,537 | 0.8% | | ||||
| BNP | David Furness | 13,325 | 0.5% | | ||||
| Independent | Prince Zylinski | 13,202 | 0.5% | | ||||
| One Love | Ankit Love | 4,941 | 0.2% | | ||||
| Labour gain from Conservative | ||||||||
The Conservative mayor Boris Johnson was elected to a second term in office, defeating former Labour mayor Ken Livingstone. Livingstone announced his retirement from politics in his concession speech.
| Mayor of London election 3 May 2012 [4] | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | First round votes Transfer votes | ||||
| Total | Of round | Transfers | Total | Of round | ||||
| Conservative | Boris Johnson | 971,931 | 44.0% | 82,880 | 1,054,811 | 51.5% | | |
| Labour | Ken Livingstone | 889,918 | 40.3% | 102,355 | 992,273 | 48.5% | | |
| Green | Jenny Jones | 98,913 | 4.5% | | ||||
| Liberal Democrats | 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 | ||||||||
The incumbent Labour mayor, Ken Livingstone was defeated by Conservative candidate Boris Johnson, who became London's second mayor.
| Mayor of London election 1 May 2008 [5] | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | First round votes Transfer votes | ||||
| Total | Of round | Transfers | Total | Of round | ||||
| Conservative | Boris Johnson | 1,043,761 | 43.2% | 124,977 | 1,168,738 | 53.2% | | |
| Labour | Ken Livingstone | 893,887 | 37.0% | 134,089 | 1,027,976 | 46.8% | | |
| Liberal Democrats | Brian Paddick | 235,585 | 9.8% | | ||||
| Green | Siân Berry | 77,347 | 3.2% | | ||||
| BNP | Richard Barnbrook | 69,710 | 3.2% | | ||||
| CPA | Alan Craig | 39,249 | 1.6% | | ||||
| UKIP | Gerard Batten | 22,422 | 1.2% | | ||||
| Respect | Lindsey German | 16,796 | 0.7% | | ||||
| English Democrat | Matt O'Connor | 10,695 | 0.4% | | ||||
| Independent | Winston McKenzie | 5,389 | 0.2% | | ||||
| Conservative gain from Labour | ||||||||
In June 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 Steven Norris again coming second.
| Mayor of London election 10 June 2004 [6] | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | First round votes Transfer votes | ||||
| Total | Of round | Transfers | Total | Of round | ||||
| Labour | Ken Livingstone | 685,548 | 36.8% | 142,842 | 828,390 | 55.4% | | |
| Conservative | Steven Norris | 542,423 | 29.1% | 124,757 | 667,180 | 44.6% | | |
| Liberal Democrats | Simon Hughes | 284,647 | 15.3% | | ||||
| UKIP | Kellie 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% | | ||||
| CPA | Ram Gidoomal | 31,698 | 2.2% | | ||||
| Ind. Working Class | Lorna Reid | 9,452 | 0.5% | | ||||
| Independent | Tammy Nagalingam | 6,692 | 0.4% | | ||||
| Labour gain from Independent | ||||||||
The 2000 campaign was incident filled. The eventual winner, Ken Livingstone, reneged on an earlier pledge not to run as an independent, after losing the Labour nomination to Frank Dobson. The Conservative Party candidate, Jeffrey Archer, was replaced by Steven Norris after Archer was charged with perjury.
| Mayor of London election 4 May 2000 [7] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | First round votes Transfer votes | |||||
| Total | Of round | Transfers | Total | Of round | |||||
| Independent | Ken Livingstone | 667,877 | 39.0% | 108,540 | 776,417 | 57.9% | | ||
| Conservative | Steven Norris | 464,434 | 27.1% | 99,703 | 564,137 | 42.1% | | ||
| Labour | Frank Dobson | 223,884 | 13.1% | | |||||
| Liberal Democrats | Susan Kramer | 203,452 | 11.9% | | |||||
| CPA | 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 | |||||||||
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