2008 London mayoral election
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 The results of the elction. Blue boroughs represent those won by Boris Johnson and red boroughs represent those won by Ken Livingston | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The London mayoral election, 2008 for the office of Mayor of London was held on 1 May, 2008 and was won by Conservative party candidate Boris Johnson.[2] It was the third London mayoral election, the previous elections being the first election in May 2000 and the second election in June 2004.
Boris Johnson became only the second Mayor of London and the first Conservative to hold the office since its creation in 2000.
Results
| London Mayoral Election Results 20083 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Party | 1st Preference Votes | % | 2nd Preference Votes | % | Final1 | % | |
1On papers where the 1st and 2nd choice votes are for the top two candidates, the 2nd choice votes are not counted. [3]
2Matt O'Connor withdrew from the election in the week prior to polling day but his name remained on the ballot paper. [4]
3Vote figures from two ballot boxes from Merton and Wandsworth were not transmitted properly to City Hall and were therefore not included in the vote totals. The number of missing votes was 746.[5]
Candidate selection process
Labour Party
On 3 May 2007 the Labour Party announced Ken Livingstone, the incumbent mayor, had been selected as their mayoral candidate. The announcement was made following consultations with London Labour Party members.[6]
Conservative Party
On 27 September 2007, Boris Johnson was announced as the Conservative candidate, having received 75% of the vote in an election open to the entire London electorate.[7]
The primary election was originally to be held in in October 2006. The candidates who applied by the 4 August deadline were Richard Barnes, London Assembly member for Ealing and Hillingdon, who withdrew in July 2007 and announced his support for Boris Johnson;[8] Andrew Boff, former Hillingdon and Hackney councillor; Nicholas Boles, Policy Exchange think-tank director, who withdrew in July 2007 for health reasons; Victoria Borwick, Kensington and Chelsea councillor; Warwick Lightfoot, also a Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea councillor; and Lee Rotherham. Steven Norris, Conservative mayoral candidate in 2000 and 2004, ruled himself out.[9] Broadcaster Nick Ferrari also ruled himself out, having considered seeking the nomination.[10]
Come the 4 August 2006 deadline, however, Conservative Party Chairman Francis Maude announced the process was being delayed for six months to allow time for further candidates to submit applications.[11][12] Prospective applicants who subsequently publicly declared were Lurline Champagnie, a London Borough of Harrow councillor; Winston McKenzie, a former boxer;[13]; and disc jockey Mike Read.[14] Reid withdrew in July 2007 following a change in the voting system for Conservative candidates, giving his support to Johnson.[15]
In April 2007 the Conservative party confirmed it had approached former Director-General of the BBC Greg Dyke. Dyke stated he would not stand except on a joint ticket with the Liberal Democrats. The Liberal Democrats stated this would be against its party's constitution.[16] Around this point former Conservative Prime Minister Sir John Major was considered a possible candidate, but he turned down an offer from David Cameron.[17]
Following media and members' criticism over the party's selection procedure,[18][19] the party chairman announced a revised timetable requiring a candidate to be in place before the party conference at the end of September 2007.[20] In June 2007, the party published a detailed timetable confirming that the result of the selection process would be announced at 10 a.m. on 27 September 2007.[21]
On 16 July, shortly before the noon deadline for nominations, Johnson confirmed he would seek the Tory nomination.[22] A final four of Johnson, Boff, Borwick and Lightfoot were chosen on 21 July for the primary election,[23] which Johnson won.
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrat candidate was former police chief Brian Paddick. The party drew up a shortlist in September 2007 with a final choice made by a one member, one vote ballot of party members.[24] Simon Hughes, the party's 2004 mayoral candidate, did not stand.[25] On 13 November 2007 it was announced Paddick had been selected from the shortlist, defeating Chamali Fernando and Councillor Fiyaz Mughal.
Green Party
On 12 March 2007 the party announced that it had selected Siân Berry as its mayoral candidate in a ballot of its London members, receiving 45% of the vote.[26] The other candidates were Shahrar Ali, Shane Collins, Katie Dawson and Terry McGrenera. Berry is also one of their Assembly candidates.[27]
UK Independence Party
At the UK Independence Party (UKIP) 2007 party conference, Gerard Batten who is the UKIP MEP for the London region was selected to contest the London Mayoral Election.
In October 2006, UKIP announced that talkSPORT presenter James Whale might stand against Ken Livingstone in the 2008 election.[28] The government's media authority Ofcom told Whale that becoming Mayor would prevent him from continuing his radio show. Whale subsequently stated on his programme he would not be the UKIP candidate, but he did not rule out standing for election.[29]
Winston McKenzie
In December 2007 former boxer Winston McKenzie told the BBC that he intended to stand for Mayor of London as an independent on an anti-gang crime platform, having failed to secure the Conservative nomination earlier in the year.[30]
The Left List
Following a split in the RESPECT Party at the end of 2007, the George Galloway-led faction (also referred to as Respect Renewal) retained the rights to the use of the name in elections, as Linda Smith was registered as party leader with the Electoral Commission (United Kingdom). The Socialist Workers Party dominated faction put forward Lindsey German under the Left List banner. Galloway's faction did not put forward a candidate, but Galloway declared his support for Ken Livingstone.[31]
British National Party
On 9 May 2007, the British National Party announced that Richard Barnbrook, leader of the opposition on Barking & Dagenham Borough Council, and a member of the party's National Advisory Committee, had been selected to stand for election in 2008.[32]
English Democrats
In July 2007, the English Democrats Party announced that talkSPORT presenter Garry Bushell had been nominated as a candidate to stand against Ken Livingstone in the 2008 election. In January 2008 Garry Bushell stepped aside (due to work commitments) in favour of Fathers-4-Justice Campaigner Matt O'Connor, who successfully stood against Andrew Constantine, a City of London Banker, in a selection contest. O'Connor is also their last London-wide list Assembly candidate. O'Connor withdrew on the 25th April, after he fell out with the party over leadership, campaign funding and tactics.
Christian Choice
On 12 February Alan Craig was selected by the Christian Choice Party to stand in the Mayoral election.[33] The Christian Choice Party are an alliance between the Christian Party and The Christian People's Alliance.
Potential candidates who did not stand
There were a significant number of people who claimed that they were planning to stand, but did not submit valid nomination papers.
One London Party
The One London Party announced that their leader, Damian Hockney, would be their candidate in 2008[34] but on 27 March 2008 Hockney withdrew from the mayoral race. He blamed a lack of media opportunities for smaller parties such as his, and claimed the race was "a media election, fought just in the media".[35]
Time Out
The London listings magazine Time Out announced it planned to recruit a self-financing candidate to stand on a manifesto agreed by its readers.[36] In February 2008 it confirmed that columnist Michael Hodges would be its candidate, standing on a reformist ticket. [37]. However, he decided not to stand, citing the bureaucratic legislative requirements for candidates and instead pledged to "fight on" to open the system up to ordinary Londoners to stand as independents [38].
John Bird
In March 2007 following widespread speculation that John Bird, founder of The Big Issue, would seek the Conservative nomination,[39] he announced that he would stand as an independent, on a platform of "social inclusion". In October 2007, he withdrew from the race and instead promised to launch a new social movement around tackling poverty.[40]
Others
Chris Prior planned to stand on a platform to abolish the congestion charge [41] for the London Assembly but pulled out of the mayoral race shortly before the close of nominations.
On 21 February 2008 Dennis Delderfield announced he would stand for the New Britain Party. He said he would abolish the Mayoral office and the GLA [42]. He did not submit a valid nomination.
John Flunder was to be the Senior Citizens Party candidate for Mayor of London [43] [44] but did not submit a valid nomination.
LondonElectsYou.co.uk, a social networking site aimed at selecting a member of the public to contest the election with a £50,000 campaign budget, was set up in March 2008 [45]. The winning candidate did not submit any nomination however, with the site's founder David Smuts claiming that electoral authorities' bureaucratic obstructions failed to get them the required access to the electoral register to validate their nomination [46].
In April 2007 Richard Fairbrass, the lead singer of pop band Right Said Fred, announced that he may stand for Mayor of London on a platform of opposition to the London congestion charge.[47]
In December 2007 peace protester Brian Haw was reported to have announced his intention to stand for Mayor of London as "the only Pro Peace candidate" [48][49] but nothing to support this appeared on his website.
Voting system
The Supplementary Vote system is used for all mayoral elections in England and Wales. Under this system voters express a first choice and (optionally) a second choice. If no candidate receives 50% of first choice votes, the top two candidates go to a second round. Voters whose first choice has been eliminated but whose second choice is one of the top two candidates have their second preference vote added to the first-round totals for the leading candidates. This gives a result whereby the winning candidate may be able to claim majority support, although it is not guaranteed.
Second preference recommendations
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (May 2008) |
Various parties recommended a variety of second preferences to their supporters. Labour and the Greens announced a second preference pact, urging Livingstone supporters to give their second choice vote to Berry and vice versa. Left List also encouraged their supporters to vote Livingstone second, while the BNP encouraged theirs to vote Johnson second, although Johnson stated during the campaign that he did not want the second choice votes of BNP supporters. Brian Paddick was regularly pressed through the campaign to recommend a second preference choice to Liberal Democrat voters, with Livingstone and the Labour Party keen to be chosen, but Paddick refused to make such a recommendation, revealing after the election that his second preference vote was for the Left List.
Vote counting
Votes were counted using an optical scan voting system, where a computer scans the ballot papers and registers the votes. A digital image of the ballot paper was also taken so if there were problems with any of the papers, they could be examined by humans. In 2008, due to the large turnout, the counting took over 15 hours. However, if counted manually the process could - according to London Elects - take up to 3 days. Election observers[50]. Election observers[51] have declared "there is insufficient evidence available to allow independent observers to state reliably whether the results declared in the May 2008 elections for the Mayor of London and the London Assembly are an accurate representation of voters’ intentions." [52] London Elects have been unable to publish an audit of some of the software used in the count [51]. The Open Rights Group reports that there was equipment directly connected to the counting servers to which observers had limited or no access to and that the presence of error messages, bugs and system freezes indicates poor software quality. [53]
Opinion polling
| Pollster | Date | Johnson | Livingstone | Paddick | Berry | Batten | Barnbrook |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Labour | Lib Dem | Green | UKIP | BNP | ||
| Actual Result | 01/05/08 | 43 | 37 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
| You Gov/Evening Standard | 01/05/08 | 43 | 36 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| You Gov/Evening Standard | 28/04/08 | 46 | 35 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| mruk/Sunday Times | 27/04/08 | 43 | 44 | 9 | - | - | - |
| Ipsos MORI/Unison | 24/04/08 | 38 | 41 | 12 | - | - | - |
| YouGov/Evening Standard | 18/04/08 | 44 | 37 | 12 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| mruk Cello/Sunday Times | 14/04/08 | 44 | 45 | 9 | - | - | - |
| YouGov/Evening Standard | 11/04/08 | 45 | 39 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Ipsos MORI/Observer | 09/04/08 | 46 | 40 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Ipsos MORI/Unison | 07/04/08 | 40 | 41 | 14 | 5 | 0 | * |
| YouGov/Evening Standard | 04/04/08 | 49 | 36 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| ICM/Guardian | 01/04/08 | 42 | 41 | 10 | 4 | - | 1 |
| YouGov/Evening Standard | 25/03/08 | 47 | 37 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| YouGov/Evening Standard | 14/03/08 | 49 | 37 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| YouGov/ITN | 21/02/08 | 44 | 39 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Ipsos MORI/Labour Party | 12/02/08 | 38 | 42 | 16 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| YouGov/ITN | 24/01/08 | 40 | 44 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| YouGov/ITN | 21/12/07 | 44 | 45 | 7 | - | - | - |
| YouGov/London Policy Institute | 09/11/07 | 39 | 45 | 8 | - | - | - |
N.B. These polls apply to First preference votes only. Source: UK Polling Report[54]
References
- ^ includes if the preference was give to one of the first two candidates
- ^ Johnson Wins London Mayor Race in Body Blow to Brown
- ^ Results: Mayor London Elects
- ^ O'Connor pulls out of mayor race BBC
- ^ http://www.libdemvoice.org/london-mayor-election-2687.html Lib Dem Voice
- ^ "Livingstone Confirmed as Labour Candidate". MayorWatch.
- ^ "Johnson is Tory Mayor Candidate". BBC News.
- ^ "Richard Barnes pulls out and backs Boris". ConservativeHome LondonMayor Blog.
- ^ "Norris opts out of Tory primary contest for London mayor". GuardianOnline.
- ^ "Ferrari Will Not Be Tories' Mayor". BBC News.
- ^ "Conservatives Delay Mayoral Selection Deadline". MayorWatch.
- ^ "Tories delay London mayoral race". BBC News.
- ^ "Mayoral fight for boxer's brother". BBC News.
- ^ "DJ Read joins 'X factor-style' Mayor race". Daily Mail.
- ^ "I'm Backing Boris". Comment is Free (Guardian Online).
- ^ "How the 'Greg Dyke for London mayor' story snowballed". The Guardian Online.
- ^ "Cameron snubbed again as Major rules out mayor race". The Times. 28 April 2007. Retrieved 2008-05-03.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Fallout From the London Nightmayor".
{{cite web}}: Text "Iain Dale's Diary" ignored (help) - ^ "Tories at war over Cameron's failed bid to get Greg". The Independent Online.
- ^ "Conservative candidate to be announced at Party conference". ConservativeHome LondonMayor Blog.
- ^ "Mayoral Selection Timetable". ConservativeHome LondonMayor Blog.
- ^ "Boris Johnson standing for mayor". BBC News.
- ^ "Tories Select Mayoral Shortlist". MayorWatch.
- ^ "Opik 'won't run for London mayor'". BBC News.
- ^ "Hughes Claims Cameron Reforms 'Are Failing'". MayorWatch.
- ^ "Berry is Green mayoral candidate". BBC News.
- ^ "The Next Mayor of London". New Statesman.
- ^ "Radio host 'could challenge Ken'". BBC News.
- ^ "Whale again rules out being UKIP London Mayor candidate". Democracy.
- ^ "'I'll knock out the opposition'". BBC News.
- ^ "Why I back Red Ken". Comment is Free (Guardian Online).
- ^ "Richard Barnbrook Adopted as Mayoral Candidate". British National Party.
- ^ "Mosque critic brands himself the 'Christian choice' for mayor". thisislondon.co.uk.
- ^ "OneLondon".
- ^ BBC NEWS | Politics | Hockney quits London mayoral race
- ^ The Battle to be Mayor of London - Time Out London
- ^ Help Hodges 2008
- ^ "Time Out".
- ^ http://news.independent.co.uk/people/pandora/article2338399.ece
- ^ BBC NEWS | Politics | Big Issue founder targets poverty
- ^ Abolish the Congestion Charge
- ^ New Britain - Events Programme 2008
- ^ "BBC".
- ^ Senior Citizens Party
- ^ "brand republic".
- ^ LondonelectsYOU!
- ^ "this is London".
- ^ UK Indymedia - London Mayor 2008
- ^ City Mayors: London elections May 2008
- ^ London Elects - E-Counting Process(accessed 02 May 2008)
- ^ a b Election observers(accessed 23 July 2008) Cite error: The named reference "Electoralcommission" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ Election Observers Report: London elections May 2008, "Insufficient evidence" to declare confidence in results<
- ^ London mayoral election: doubts over 41,000 votes counted by machine
- ^ "Mayoral voting intention - First preference". UK Polling Report. Retrieved 2008-04-09.
See also
