London mayoral election
The 2012 London mayoral election was an election held on Thursday 3 May 2012, to elect the Mayor of London. It was held on the same day as the London Assembly election, and used a supplementary vote system.
Incumbent Tory mayor and future Prime Minister Boris Johnson won re-election to a second term as Mayor. Ken Livingstone, who had been Mayor between 2000 and 2008, was seeking a third, non-consecutive term as the Labour candidate. No other candidates received 5% of the vote (the threshold for retaining their deposit). As of the 2024 London mayoral election, this was the last time that London voted for a Conservative Party Mayor.
Background.
At the 2008 mayoral election, Boris Johnson defeated incumbent mayor Ken Livingstone. Livingstone's defeat had been attributed to a loss of support amongst swing voters and voters in London's outer suburbs. The contest was also one of the 2008 local elections, which generally demonstrated poor results for Labour.
Candidates and their selection processes.
Conservative Party.
Media reports alleged tension between Johnson and the national Conservative leadership as well as the Conservative-controlled central government. This might have led Johnson to seek a parliamentary seat to challenge these two entities rather than seek a second term as mayor. However, on 10 September 2010, he announced his intention to stand for a second term. At a re-selection meeting on 14 October 2010, he faced a period of questioning, before being unanimously adopted as the Conservatives' candidate.
Labour Party.
The Labour Party candidate for Mayor was elected by an electoral college composed half-and-half of the votes of Labour members in London and the votes of affiliated organisations. The ballot papers were issued around early September 2010, and the winner was announced on 24 September. Four people initially sought the nomination: Ken Livingstone, Oona King, Seton During and Emmanuel Okoro.
Several Labour politicians such as Peter Mandelson, Tessa Jowell, Sadiq Khan, James Purnell, Lord Sugar, Alan Johnson, Tony McNulty and David Lammy were all touted as potential candidates, but none of these decided to run. Ken Livingstone had announced his intention to regain the mayoralty in March 2009 and said at the time that he would run as an independent if he failed to gain Labour's nomination, as he had done successfully in 2000. Former MP and Channel 4 Diversity Officer Oona King announced her bid for the candidacy in May 2010.
Prior to the vote, Livingstone gained the support of the GMB and Unite trade unions, as well as the backing of the majority of Labour members in the London Assembly. "The Economist" wrote that he was "by some distance the favourite to win the candidacy".
On 24 September 2010, the Labour Party announced that Livingstone had defeated King for the nomination by a wide margin, the former mayor gaining 68.8% of the total votes.
Liberal Democrats.
Around the beginning of September 2010, the Liberal Democrats started accepting applications for their nominee. Lembit Öpik, Member of Parliament for Montgomeryshire from 1997 until his defeated re-election bid in 2010, said in June 2010 that he would like to be their candidate. Liberal Democrat councillor Duwayne Brooks, a friend of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence who was with him when he died, also put himself forward.
Caroline Pidgeon, Floella Benjamin, Joanna Lumley, Brian Paddick and Susan Kramer were also seen as possible candidates . Jeremy Ambache, a former parliamentary candidate for Putney, also put his name down for selection for his party however he did not continue his campaign since he defected to Labour.
On 15 October 2010, plans for selecting a candidate were deferred for twelve months. On 12 July 2011, the new shortlist of four candidates was announced. As a result of the announcement of the shortlist a High Court complaint was lodged by Patrick Streeter who was unsuccessful in being shortlisted. Subsequently, the High Court ruled the Liberal Democrats selection process fair and lawful. The result was declared after a ballot of party members on 2 September. The four candidates were Öpik, Paddick, Brian Haley and Mike Tuffrey. Haley is a councillor in Haringey and was a member of the Labour Party until defecting in January 2010. Paddick was the party's candidate in 2008 and previously Deputy Assistant Commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police. Tuffrey led the Liberal Democrat group on the London Assembly between 2006 and 2010.
Results.
 ;section begin="Results"/ ;
! colspan="9" | Mayor of London election 3 May 2012
! colspan=2 rowspan=2 | Party
! rowspan=2 | Candidate
! colspan=2 | 1st round
! colspan=3 | 2nd round
! rowspan=2 style="width:45ex; text-align:left;" | 1st round votesTransfer votes, 2nd round
! Total
! Of round
! Transfers
! Total
! Of round
! style="color:inherit;background-color: " | 
 ;section end="Results"/ ;
Maps.
The turnout was 38.1%, a decrease from 45.33% in the previous election.
Shortly before midnight on 4 May, Boris Johnson was declared the re-elected Mayor of London.
References.
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