Mayor of London | |
---|---|
Greater London Authority | |
Style | No courtesy or style ascribed [1] |
Type | Council Leader |
Status | Chief executive officer |
Member of | |
Reports to | London Assembly |
Seat | City Hall, London |
Appointer | Electorate of London |
Term length | Four years, renewable |
Constituting instrument | Greater London Authority Act 1999, s 2(1)(a) |
Inaugural holder | Ken Livingstone |
Deputy | Statutory Deputy Mayor of London |
Salary | £152,734 [2] |
Website | london.gov.uk/mayor |
This article is part of a series within the Politics of England on the |
Politics of London |
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The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom. [3]
The current mayor is Sadiq Khan, who took office on 9 May 2016. The position was held by Ken Livingstone from the creation of the role on 4 May 2000 until he was defeated in May 2008 by Boris Johnson, who then also served two terms before being succeeded by Khan.
The mayor is scrutinised by the London Assembly and, supported by their Mayoral Cabinet, directs the entirety of London, including the City of London (for which there is also the Lord Mayor of the City of London). Each London Borough also has a ceremonial mayor or, in Croydon, Hackney, Lewisham, Newham and Tower Hamlets, an elected mayor.
The Greater London Council, the elected government for Greater London, was abolished in 1986 by the Local Government Act 1985. Strategic functions were split off to various joint arrangements. Londoners voted in a referendum in 1998 to create a new governance structure 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.
The mayor will now be elected by the first-past-the-post system for a fixed term of four years, with elections taking place in May 2024. Prior to the Elections Act 2022, the supplementary vote method was used. There are no limits on the number of terms a mayor may serve. The mayor is elected by the largest single-member electorate in the United Kingdom.
As with most elected posts in the United Kingdom, there is a deposit (in this case of £10,000), which is returnable on the candidate's winning of at least 5% of votes cast.
The most recent London mayoral election was held on 6 May 2021, having been delayed from May 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [4] The results were announced in the evening of 8 May. [5] Sadiq Khan was re-elected for a second term, beating the Conservative Shaun Bailey in the second round.
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% | |
Colour key (for political parties) |
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# | Portrait | Name (Birth–Death) | Term of office | Elected | Political party | Previous, concurrent and subsequent political offices | Education | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Ken Livingstone (born 1945) | 4 May 2000 | 4 May 2008 [note 1] | 2000 | Independent | Councillor [note 2] (1973–1986) Leader of the Greater London Council (1981–1986) Member of Parliament for Brent East (1987–2001) |
| ||
2004 | Labour | ||||||||
2 | Boris Johnson (born 1964) | 4 May 2008 | 9 May 2016 | 2008 | Conservative | Member of Parliament for Henley (2001–2008) Member of Parliament for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (2015–2023) Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (2016–2018) Leader of the Conservative Party (2019–2022) Prime Minister (2019–2022) | |||
2012 | |||||||||
3 | Sadiq Khan (born 1970) | 9 May 2016 [8] | Incumbent | 2016 | Labour | Member of Parliament for Tooting (2005–2016) Minister of State for Transport (2009–2010) Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor (2010–2015) | |||
2021 | |||||||||
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 mayor's main functions are: [9] [10]
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. [11] In 2010, Johnson 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 ten academies, but it only reached a group of four before the mayor withdrew it in 2013.
The following is a table comparing power over services of the boroughs to the GLA and mayor.
Service | Greater London Authority | London borough councils |
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Education | ||
Housing | ||
Planning applications | ||
Strategic planning | ||
Transport planning | ||
Passenger transport | ||
Highways | ||
Police | ||
Fire | ||
Social services | ||
Libraries | ||
Leisure and recreation | ||
Waste collection | ||
Waste disposal | ||
Environmental health | ||
Revenue collection |
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 August 2003, Livingstone oversaw the introduction of the Oyster card electronic ticketing system for Transport for London services. [12] Livingstone supported the withdrawal of the vintage AEC Routemaster buses from regular service in London. [13]
Livingstone introduced 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 and later still, Same-sex marriage. Unlike civil partnerships, the London Partnerships Register was open to heterosexual couples who favour a public commitment other than marriage.
As Mayor of London, Livingstone was a supporter of the London Olympics in 2012, ultimately winning the bid to host the Games in 2005. Livingstone encouraged sport in London; especially when sport could be combined with helping charities like The London Marathon and 10K charity races. Livingstone, in a mayoral election debate on the BBC's Question Time in April 2008, stated that the primary reason he supported the Olympic bid was to secure funding for the redevelopment of the East End of London. In July 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 in and around bus stations. [14] A ban on alcohol on underground, and Docklands Light Railway, tram services and stations across the capital was introduced. [15]
Also in May 2008, he announced the closure of The Londoner newspaper, saving approximately £2.9 million. A percentage of this saving was to be spent on planting 10,000 new street trees. [16]
In 2010, he extended the coverage of Oyster card electronic ticketing to all National Rail overground train services. [17] Also in 2010, he opened a cycle hire scheme (originally sponsored by Barclays, now Santander) with 5,000 bicycles available for hire across London. Although initiated by his predecessor, Ken Livingstone, the scheme rapidly acquired the nickname of "Boris Bikes". Johnson withdrew the recently introduced high-speed high-capacity "bendy buses" from service in 2011 which had been bought by Livingstone, and he instead supported the development of the New Routemaster [18] which entered service the next year.
In 2011, Boris Johnson set up the Outer London Fund of £50 million designed to help facilitate improve local high streets. [19] Areas in London were given the chance to submit proposals for two tranches of funding. Successful bids for Phase 1 included Enfield, [20] Muswell Hill [21] and Bexley town centre. [22] The recipients of phase 2 funding were still to be announced As of 2011 [update] .
In January 2013, he appointed journalist Andrew Gilligan as the first Cycling Commissioner for London. [23] In March 2013, Johnson announced £1 billion of investment in infrastructure to make cycling safer in London, including a 15-mile (24 km) East to West segregated 'Crossrail for bikes'. [24]
At the General Election of 7 May 2015, Johnson was elected MP for Uxbridge and Ruislip South, [25] He continued to serve as mayor until the mayoral election in May 2016, when Sadiq Khan was elected.
Sadiq Khan introduced the 'bus hopper' fare on TfL buses, which allows passengers to board a second bus within one hour for the same fare. [26] Under Khan, paper and coin cash transactions became obsolete and the Oyster system was expanded to include debit and credit cards. This initiative was started under his predecessor, Johnson.
Upon election, Khan outlined a vision to make London the "greenest city" by investing in walking and cycling infrastructure while reducing polluting vehicles. [27] In 2019, the "Ultra Low Emission Zone" scheme was launched which taxes highly polluting vehicles in its covered territory. [28] London declared itself the world's first "National Park City" (effective from July 2019), [29] reflecting its unusually high amount of green space for a city of its size. [30]
The Government postponed all elections due in May 2020, including for the mayor of London, for one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Khan had therefore served a term in office of five years rather than four, which ended in May 2021. [31] He was re-elected in 2021 for a shortened three-year term, [32] defeating the Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey. [33] [34]
Transport for London (TfL) is a local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London, United Kingdom.
The Greater London Authority (GLA), colloquially known by the metonym City Hall, is the devolved regional governance body of Greater London, England. It consists of two political branches: an executive Mayor and the 25-member London Assembly, which serves as a means of checks and balances on the Mayor. Since May 2016, both branches have been under the control of the London Labour Party. The authority was established in 2000, following a local referendum, and derives most of its powers from the Greater London Authority Act 1999 and the Greater London Authority Act 2007.
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Buses have been used as a mode of public transport in London since 1829, when George Shillibeer started operating a horse-drawn omnibus service from Paddington to the City of London. In the decades since their introduction, the red London bus has become a symbol of the city.
A Deputy Mayor is a member of the London Mayoral cabinet, in the executive arm of the Greater London Authority. They serve as political advisors with responsibilities and powers corresponding to portfolios delegated by the Mayor. One of them must be designated as the Statutory Deputy Mayor, a member of the London Assembly who serves as the temporary Mayor during a vacancy or temporary incapacity of the Mayor.
Freedom Pass is a concessionary travel scheme, which began in 1973, to provide free travel to residents of Greater London, England, for people with a disability or over the progressively increasing women's state pension age. The scheme is funded by local authorities and coordinated by London Councils. Originally the pass was a paper ticket, but since 2004 it has been encoded on to a contactless smartcard compatible with Oyster card readers.
Sadiq Aman Khan is a British politician serving as Mayor of London since 2016. He was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting from 2005 until 2016. A member of the Labour Party, Khan is on the party's soft left and has been ideologically characterised as a social democrat.
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The Londoner was a newsletter in the style of a newspaper published by the Mayor of London, and delivered free to most households in Greater London, United Kingdom.
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Articulated buses, popularly called "bendy buses," were introduced to London in October 2001 when two Wright Eclipse Fusion bodied Volvo B7LAs were hired from First Hampshire & Dorset, one of which was repainted into First London's red livery, and six Wright Fusion bodied Volvo B10LAs from First Glasgow for a trial on route 207 between Shepherd's Bush and Hayes-By-Pass.
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.
Kenneth Robert Livingstone is an English retired politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the creation of the office in 2000 until 2008. He also served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent East from 1987 to 2001. A former member of the Labour Party, he was on the party's hard left, ideologically identifying as a socialist.
The New Routemaster, originally referred to as the New Bus for London and colloquially as the Borismaster or Boris Bus, is a low-floor diesel double-decker bus operated in London, England. Designed by Heatherwick Studio and manufactured by Wrightbus, it is notable for featuring a "hop-on hop-off" rear open platform similar to the original Routemaster bus design but updated to meet requirements for modern buses to be fully accessible. It first entered service in February 2012.
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The Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) is an area in London, England, where an emissions standard based charge is applied to non-compliant road vehicles. Plans were announced by London Mayor Boris Johnson in March 2015 for the zone to come into operation in September 2020. Sadiq Khan, the subsequent mayor, introduced the zone early on 8 April 2019. The zone initially covered Central London, the same area as the existing London congestion charge and raised £224 million in 2022.
Boris Johnson served as mayor of London from 1 May 2008 until 5 May 2016, being elected in 2008 and reelected in 2012. During his mayoralty, Johnson oversaw the preparations and hosting of the 2012 Summer Olympics and oversaw the cycle hire scheme. He also with introduced the New Routemaster buses and the Thames cable car, while promoting the proposed Garden Bridge over the River Thames; the project was later abandoned after Johnson left office. Johnson also banned alcohol consumption on much of London's public transport.
The 2024 London mayoral election is due to be held on 2 May 2024 to elect the next mayor of London. It will take place simultaneously with elections to the London Assembly and local elections across England and Wales. Following the Elections Act 2022, voting in this election will take place under the first-past-the-post system for the first time, replacing the supplementary vote system.
But because of the processes involved, he won't be technically in office until just after midnight on Monday.
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