London Mayoral Election
The Mayor of London is elected using a supplementary vote system by residents of Greater London. The position was created in 2000, the first directly elected mayor in the UK. Voters have first and second preference votes, with the second preferences of votes for all but the top two candidates being re-allocated after the first round of counting.
Boris Johnson has served as Mayor of London since 2008, having defeated the first holder of the post Ken Livingstone, who had held the position since in 2000. Livingstone had initially ben elected as an Independent, having failed to secure the Labour nomination and gone back on an undertaking not to stand against the official Labour candidate. He was subsequently re-admitted to the Labour party and secured a second term as the official Labour candidate.
Current Mayor: Boris Johnson (Conservative) born 1964, New York, USA. Son of Stanley Johnson, former MEP and Conservative candidate in Teignbridge in 2005. Educated at Eton and Oxford, a contemporary of David Cameron. Author, television presenter and journalist. Worked as a columnist on the Daily Telegraph and as editor of The Spectator. Instantly recognisable by his dishevelled appearance, blond thatch of hair and bumbling public-schoolboy mannerisms, he has become a media celebrity through appearances on Have I Got News For You and tendency to make gaffes. As shadow minister for arts under Michael Howard he survived being made to publically apologise to Liverpool over an editoral in the Spectator that accused them of wallowing in victimhood, but not the revelation (that he had previously described as “an inverted pyramid of piffle”) that he had been conducting an affair with Petronella Wyatt. Appointed shadow minister for higher education in 2005-2007. Mayor of London since 2008. Contested Clywd South in 1997. MP for Henley 2001 to 2008.
Ken Livingstone (Labour) born 1945, Lambeth. Educated at Tulse Hill Comprehensive and then trained as a teacher. Former Lambeth and Camden councillor. GLC member for Norwood from 1973-1977. GLC member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington 1977-1981. GLC member for Paddington 1981-1986. Contested Parliamentary seat in Hampstead 1979. Contested leadership of the Labour group on the GLC in 1980, losing to Andrew McIntosh. The day after Labour’s victory in the GLC elections of 1981 he successfully challenged McIntosh to become the leader of the GLC. Livingstone led a left-wing populist regime in County Hall with a tendency toward symbolic acts of defiance towards the Conservative government it faced across the Thames. Livingstone’s policy of subsidised public transport fayres was struck down as unlawful, he declared London a nuclear free zone and extended an official inviation to Gerry Adams at a time when he was banned from the mainland. Livingstone resigned as leader and from the GLC in 1984 to fight a by-election on the issue of opposing the abolition of the GLC. Livingstone won the by-election, but the GLC was abolished at the end of 1986.
Brian Paddick (Liberal Democrat) born 1958, Balham. Educated at Bec Grammar School , Sutton Manor High School and Oxford University. A former police officer, he served as Police Commander for the borough of Lambeth from 2000-2002 and Deputy Assistant Commissioner from 2003-2007. During his time in charge of policing in Lambeth he persued a softly-softly approach to drug use, not arresting or charging people for cannabis possession, and became known as one of the most senior openly gay police officers.
Gerard Batten (UKIP) born 1954, London. Former British Telecom salesman. Contested Barking by-election 1994, Harlow 1997, West Ham 2001, Dagenham 2005. MEP for the London Region since 2004.
Lindsey German (Left List) born 1951, London. Former editor of Socialist Review. Convenor of the Stop the War Coalition. Contested London Mayoral election 2004 as the Respect candidate. Contested West Ham 2005 for Respect. The Respect party split in late 2007, the party’s nominating officer is loyal to the George Galloway faction, leaving members of the SWP faction like German unable to stand under the Respect banner. Respect candidates from the SWP faction will contest the GLA elections under the name The Left List.
Richard Barnbrook (BNP) born 1961, Catford. Educated at the Royal Academy of Art. Art lecturer and sculptor. Barking and Dagenham councillor and BNP group leader since 2006.
Sian Berry (Green) born 1974, Cheltenham. Educated at Pate’s Grammar School and Trinity College, Oxford. Former medical copywriter, now a website manager. Principle Speaker of the Green party since 2007. Contested Hampstead and Highgate 2005. Also running for the London assembly.
Alan Craig (Christian People’s Alliance) Educated at Newcastle University. Former businessman and warden in a young offender institution. Newham councillor. Leader of the Christian People’s Alliance. Also standing for the London assembly.
Matt O’Connor (English Democrats) born 1967. Former marketing executive. Founder of Fathers 4 Justice. Announced he would stop campaigning and withdraw from the race on the 25th April having fallen out with the party leadership.
Winston Mckenzie (Independent) born 1953, Jamacia. Former amateur boxer and hairdresser. Formerly ran a bar and gym in Thornton Heath, now establishing himself as a oil negotiator. Serial party member, having been a member of the Labour party, the Liberal Democrats, Veritas and the Conservatives. Contested Brent East by-election 2003 as an Independent, Croydon North for Veritas in 2005. Resigned from Veritas before rejoining to unsucessfully contest the party leadership. Unsucessfully auditioned for the X Factor in 2005. Unsuccessfully sought Conservative mayoral nomination in 2007 before leaving to stand as an independent.
Steve Norris (Conservative) born 1945, Liverpool. Educated at Liverpool Institute for Boys and Oxford University. Former Volkswagen salesman, later Chairman of construction firm Jarvis plc. Elected to Berkshire county council 1977. MP for Oxford East 1983-1987. MP for Epping Forest 1988-1997. Junior transport minister 1992-1994, Minister of State for Transport 1994-1997. Contested London Mayoral election 2000, 2004. During the media frenzy of exposing Conservative MPs misbehaviour in the 1990s it was revealed that Norris had, over the years, had no fewer than five mistresses, leading to the nickname “Shagger” Norris.
Simon Hughes (Liberal Democrat) born 1951, Cheshire. Educated at Llandaff Cathedral School and Cambridge University. Barrister. The second longest serving Liberal Democrat MP, Hughes was first elected to Parliament in the notorious 1983 Bermondsey by-election. Environment spokesman 1983-1988, education spokesman 1988-1992, environment spokesman 1992-1994, health spokesman 1994-1997, home affairs spokesman 1997-2003. He contested the London Mayoral election in 2004. President of the Liberal Democrats since 2004. Contested the Liberal Democrat leadership elections of 1999 and 2006, during which he was outed by the Sun newspaper.
Frank Maloney (UKIP) born Peckham. Boxing manager and promoter, managed Lennox Lewis 1989-2001. Subsequently resigned from UKIP.
Julian Leppert (BNP) postal worker. Subsequently contested Epping Forest 2005 and was elected as a Redbridge councillor in 2006.
Darren Johnson (Green) born 1966 Educated at Goldsmiths College. Principle speaker for the Green party 2002. Contested London mayoral election 2000, 2004. List London Assembly member since 2000. Lewisham councillor since 2002 and leader of the Green group on Lewisham council. Will contest Lewisham Deptford at next election.
Ram Gidoomal (Christian People’s Alliance) born 1950, Kenya. Came to Britain as a refugee in 1967. Educated at Aga Khan School, Mombassa, Christopher Wren Comprehensive, Shepherd’s Bush and Imperical College. Banker and businessman. Awarded the CBE for services to business in 1998. Leader of the CPA 2000-2004.
Lorna Reid (Independent Working Class Association) Advice worker.
Tammy Nagalingam (Independent) born Sri Lanka. Doctor.
Frank Dobson (Labour) born 1940, York. Educated at Archbishop Holgate’s Grammar School and the LSE. Worked for the Electricty board prior to his election. Camden councillor 1971-75, council leader 1973-1975. First elected as MP for Holborn and St Pancras South in 1979. Spokesman on various issues throughout the 1980s, he was appointed Secretary of State for health on Labour’s election victory in 1997. He remained in post for only two years before being pursuaded to stand for London Mayor. He won the Labour nomination against Ken Livingstone, but was decisively beaten in the actual election. Since then he has been a regular critic of the government and opponant of the war in Iraq
Susan Kramer (Lib Dem) born 1950, London. Educated at St Paul’s and Oxford University. Former Vice-President of Citibank and Director of International Capital Partners, a company advising on infrastructure in Eastern Europe. Stood for London Mayor in 2000. Contested London in 1999 European elections. Contested Dulwich and West Norwood 1997. First elected as MP for Richmond Park in 2005. Liberal Democrat trade and industry spokesman 2006-7, transport 2007-
Michael Newland (BNP) Former building contractor. Treasurer and national press officer of the BNP. Subsequently resigned from the BNP in 2000 after raising questions over the use of party funds and joined the Freedom Party.
Damian Hockney (UKIP) Magazine publisher, plastic surgery affectionado and former Eurovision song contest entrant. A former member of the Conservative party, contested Pendle for the Referendum party in 1997. Contested Kesington and Chelsea for UKIP in the 1999 by-election and 2001 election. Contested London majoral election in 2000. Subsequently elected as a UKIP Londonwide member of the London assembly in 2004, he defected to Robert Kilroy Silk’s Veritas party in 2005 and served as deputy leader until Kilroy’s resignation in 2005. He subsequently founded the One London party in 2005.
Geoffrey Ben-Nathan (Pro-motorist and Small Shop)
Ashwin Tanna (Independent) Pharmacist. Subsequently contested Brent East for UKIP in 2001.
Geoffrey Clements (Natural Law Party) Educated at the University of Sussex. Leader of the Natural Law party. Contested London in 1999 European elections. Contested Southport 1992, Buckingham 1997.
That is true and why one notable exception always seemed strange and slightly unfathomable, namely the strength of the LDs in the bloc of wards of South West Brent – Alperton, Barham/Sudbury and Wembley Central, which of course long predates the Sarah Teather related LD strength further East in Brent. These are amongst the most heavily Hindu wards in the country and while the LDs may do better amongst other demographics there, they could not do as well as they do there if they didn’t win at least a very substantial minority of the HIndu vote
Thats a good point Barnaby. While Muslims may divert from Labour periodically Hindus tend to stay loyal.
I purposely didn’t include Brent when listing places of Hindu and Sikh loyalty. The communities in Brent still confuse me. Alperton is one of those places which probably used to be a Labour/Tory marginal, tipped over to Labour following changing demographics and has now moved onto the Lib Dems who seem very strong in the ward. Saying that the Lib Dems seem to do well in wards which should be Labour (or Tory in the case of parts of Sutton and Kingston) which are slightly removed from the rest of the borough. Cann Hall in Waltham Forest is another such ward.
Andy
I think the white population of Greater London may well be around 60%.
What I think you are not accounting for is how many of them are white but not white British.
There are many hundreds of thousands of East Europeans in London, large numbers of French, Spaniah, Italians, South Africans, Russians, Australians etc etc. In total, I could easily believe there are 1 million white non-British in London.
This really mucks up conventional assumptions about turnout amongst racial groups because the vast majority of them will not vote and indeed may not be allowed to….most probably won’t be registered either.
Thus as a proportion of the total population, I do not believe whites in London have a much higher propensity to vote than ethnic minorities.
Also, if whites are 60% of London’s population, it will mean that they are now probably a smaller percentage of the electorate, maybe 55-58%.
I’m not sure if your calculations are correct because we are afterall discussing the Mayoral and GLA election rather than a general election. In this case those who are EU citizens would be entitled to vote, and Commonwealth citizens would be able to vote in both GLA and General elections. This would of course include most of those groups you mentioned Conversely there will be numbers of non-white residents who do not qualify to vote such as Chinese, Arabs who are not UK citizens.
Yes exactly. You have made my point for me.
I do not believe that recently-arrived Polish people who are not citizens are going to be more likely to turn out to vote than black or Asian people who are citizens and have been here many years.
Therefore conventional wisdom about the white electorate having a much higher turnout than the ethnic minority electorate probably doesn’t hold so much for mayoral elections.
The census figures show much bigger rises in population in inner (or heavily ethnic Boroughs).
For example, I think Bexley, Bromley, and Richmond only saw rises of 12-15,000 each
whereas rises of around 40,000 in other areas is pretty standard fare.
Those areas are contributing a greater weight to London wide results.
Interesting I think to compare the 2011 census results with the electorate being used for the boundary review:
March 2011 census, Greater London: 8,173,900
December 2010 electorate: 5,266,904
That’s a percentage of electorate to population of 64.44%. Although London has an unusually young population compared to the rest of the country, that percentage figure still looks very low.
London’s new allocation of 68 seats out of 600 is looking even more unfair than it was before, although one could blame the population themselves for failing to register to vote.
It is presumably down the large number of forighn nationals who are either ineligible to vote or who are eligible but have not registered. I don’t think London’s allocation is unfair, except in as much as based on electorate it should have been awarded 69 seats rather than 68. I certainly don;t see why it should have more based on it having a higher number of resident aliens
Found this – according to the estimates in the Guardian last year the white British population of London was 59.52% in 2009. The census may give different figures of course:
ht tp://bit.ly/NHb8fU
Agree with a lot Pete says.
Livingstone is a nasty and very divisive politician,
but not electorally that unsuccessful.
It sickens me the way the neo Communist left
exploit race, such as Islamic extremism as part of their hierarchy of dotty political correctness.