London mayoral election
The 2016 London mayoral election was held on 5 May 2016 to elect the Mayor of London, on the same day as the London Assembly election. It was the fifth election to the position of mayor, which was created in 2000 following a referendum in Greater London. The election used a supplementary vote system.
The election was won by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting, Sadiq Khan, a member of the Labour Party, who polled 56.8% of the votes in the head-to-head second round of voting over the MP for Richmond Park, Zac Goldsmith, a member of the Conservative Party. Goldsmith was more than 25% ahead of the next candidate in the first round of voting, as part of a record field of twelve candidates. Of the twelve candidates only Khan, Goldsmith, and Green Party candidate Siân Berry achieved the requisite 5% minimum first round vote share to retain their deposit.
This was the first election to not feature either of the two previous holders of the office, Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson, who had run against each other in 2008 and 2012. Johnson, as incumbent mayor, had chosen not to stand for re-election for a third term in office, having been elected as the Conservative Party MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip at the 2015 general election. The campaign was dominated by the personal battle between Goldsmith and Khan, and their contrasting class and ethnic backgrounds. Through his victory, Khan became the second Labour Party mayor of London after Livingstone, and the first Muslim mayor of a European Union capital city.
The campaign of Goldsmith was marred by accusations of Islamophobia. Senior Muslim figures within the Conservative Party supported the accusations while the Muslim Council of Britain described Goldsmith's campaign as an example of Tory "dog whistle anti-Muslim racism" and called the party to investigate Goldsmith as part of an investigation into alleged Islamophobia in the Conservative party.
Background.
The position of mayor of London was created in 2000 after a referendum in London. The mayor has a range of responsibilities covering policing, transport, housing, planning, economic development, arts, culture and the environment, controlling a budget of around £17 billion per year. Mayors are elected for a period of four years, with no limit to the number of terms served.
Prior to the 2016 election, there had been two mayors since the position's creation. The outgoing mayor, Boris Johnson of the Conservative Party was elected mayor in 2008, defeating incumbent Labour Party mayor Ken Livingstone. Johnson was re-elected, again ahead of Livingstone, in the 2012 election. Neither Livingstone nor Johnson stood in 2016, making it the first London mayoral election that Livingstone did not contest, and the first time a mayor had chosen not to defend their position.
Since the previous mayoral vote, Labour had taken the majority of London votes and seats at the 2015 General Election, despite the Conservative Party winning the vote nationally. Ten further candidates contested the election; of these the UK Independence Party (UKIP) (8.1%), the Liberal Democrats (7.7%, 1 seat) and the Green Party (4.7%) had been the most popular parties in London at the 2015 election.
Electoral system.
The election used a supplementary vote system, in which voters express a first and a second preference of candidates. 
This means that the winning candidate has the support of a majority of voters who expressed a preference among the top two.
All registered electors (British, Irish, Commonwealth and European Union citizens) living in London aged 18 or over on 5 May 2016 were entitled to vote in the mayoral election. Those who were temporarily away from London (for example, away working, on holiday, in student accommodation or in hospital) were also entitled to vote in the mayoral election. The deadline to register to vote in the election was midnight on 19 April 2016. However, the Electoral Commission warned that thousands of transient renters were not eligible to vote.
Candidates and their selection processes.
The nomination period for mayoral candidates was from 21 to 31 March 2016. Confirmation of candidates occurred after nominations closed, which revealed a record number of candidates for a London Mayoral election Among other requirements, candidates had to: be over 18; submit the signatures of 330 supporters (ten from each borough); pay a £10,000 deposit, refundable to candidates receiving more than 5% of first choice votes; and not have been sentenced to a prison term of three months or more in the previous five years. The full list of candidates was released on 1 April 2016, though many parties had gone through extensive selection processes prior to this.
Conservative Party.
Seven people registered to be the candidate for the Conservative Party. Of these, three were eliminated: Philippa Roe, leader of Westminster City Council; Ivan Massow, financial services entrepreneur, gay rights campaigner, and media personality; and Sol Campbell, former Arsenal and England football player. Four nominees went into a primary, with registration open anyone on the London electoral roll. The candidate was announced on 2 October 2015 to be Zac Goldsmith, journalist, author and MP for Richmond Park. The defeated nominees were: Andrew Boff, leader of the Conservative Party in the London Assembly; Stephen Greenhalgh, businessman and Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime; and Syed Kamall, academic, Chairman of the European Conservatives and Reformists, and an MEP for London.
Goldsmith, a member of the prominent Goldschmidt family, grew up in Ham, London. His early career was spent working in think-tanks and for "The Ecologist" magazine, of which he was editor from 2000 until 2006. He left "The Ecologist" in 2006 when he became deputy chairman of the Conservative Party's Quality of Life Policy Group, and he was elected as Conservative MP for Richmond Park at the 2010 general election. As a social and economic liberal, Goldsmith has campaigned for a small state with direct democracy. Goldsmith, having made his name editing an environmentalist magazine, opposed expansion of Heathrow and vowed to continue investment in public transport. He stated that he was in favour of "right-to-buy" schemes for buying homes, and wanted to expand housing stock through high-density, low-rise construction. Goldsmith announced his support for the UK leaving the European Union, reflecting his eurosceptic position. Goldsmith's aristocratic background was commented on, particularly in contrast to Khan's working-class roots, though some suggested this could have given Goldsmith an advantage.
Labour Party.
Eight politicians registered an interest in becoming the Labour Party candidate, of whom two—Keran Kerai, Labour Party member in Harrow East and Neeraj Patil, former Mayor of Lambeth and former Lambeth Borough Councillor for Larkhall Ward—were not shortlisted. Between 14 August and 10 September, affiliated and registered supporters and members of the Labour Party in London voted for their preferred candidate. The winning candidate was Sadiq Khan, with 59% of the vote. He defeated: Diane Abbott, former Shadow Minister for Public Health, candidate for leader in 2010 and MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington; Tessa Jowell, former Olympics Minister and former MP for Dulwich and West Norwood; David Lammy, former Universities Minister and MP for Tottenham; Gareth Thomas, Shadow Foreign Office Minister, Chair of the Co-operative Party and MP for Harrow West; and Christian Wolmar, journalist, author, and railway historian.
Khan was elected to Parliament as MP for Tooting at the 2005 general election. He had previously worked as a human rights lawyer. After being the campaign manager for Ed Miliband in the latter's successful bid to become Labour Party leader, Khan was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Justice in 2010, a post from which he resigned after the 2015 General Election and Miliband's resignation as Labour leader.
Khan's selection as a candidate was seen as part of a wider move towards the left in Labour that emerged during the 2015 leadership election that followed Miliband's resignation. Key policies that Khan proposed included a London 'living rent'; a quota system for ethnic minority officers in the Metropolitan Police; increased home building; and a campaign for a London Living Wage. Commentators raised Khan's Muslim religion as a potential barrier to election, after a poll (not mentioning Khan by name) suggested that 31% of Londoners would be 'uncomfortable' with a Muslim mayor. Khan, who was London's first Muslim MP, argued that the election of a Muslim could encourage London to become recognised as a more cosmopolitan city. While Khan had stated that he would serve a full term as MP for Tooting if he were to become mayor of London, he later announced that would stand down as MP for Tooting if he were elected mayor.
Green Party.
Jenny Jones, the Green party's candidate in the 2012 election, and Natalie Bennett, leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, declined to stand for the Green nomination. Six candidates were shortlisted for the nomination, with Siân Berry, the party's candidate in the 2008 election, selected by London-based members of the Green Party. Unsuccessful nominees were Jonathan Bartley (candidate for Streatham in the 2015 general election, co-founder of Ekklesia, and Work and Pensions Spokesperson for the Green Party); Tom Chance (candidate for Lewisham West and Penge in the 2015 general election and Housing Spokesperson for the Greens); Benali Hamdache (Equalities Spokesperson for the Green Party, and former National Health Service researcher); Rashid Nix (a Camera operator and candidate for Dulwich and West Norwood in the 2015 general election); and Caroline Russell (Islington Borough Councillor for Highbury East Ward since 2014 and clean air campaigner).
Berry joined the Green Party at age 28, and became a prominent green transport campaigner. She was Principal Speaker of the Green Party from 2006 to 2007, before becoming the Green candidate for the 2008 mayoral election. She first stood for election at Camden Borough Council in 2002, and was elected to the council in May 2014. Having had a variety of jobs, at the time of the election she was primarily an author and worked for the Campaign for Better Transport. Berry made increasing affordable housing a key policy area in her mayoral campaign, through brownfield building, capping rents and preventing foreign businesses from purchasing homes. She aimed to prioritise sustainability oriented policies over those that seek economic growth.
Liberal Democrats.
The Liberal Democrats opened their selection process on 8 June 2015. Applications were due by noon on 22 June 2015 and six potential nominees stood to be candidates. Four of these were not shortlisted: Brian Haley, a former Labour councillor in Haringey, who also unsuccessfully stood for the Liberal Democrat candidacy in 2012; Teena Lashmore, a criminologist, community activist and Liberal Democrat candidate in Bethnal Green and Bow at the 2015 general election; Marisha Ray, a former councillor in Islington; and Paul Reynolds, former councillor. Of the remaining candidates, Duwayne Brooks OBE, former councillor in Lewisham, withdrew due to his commitments to a review of police stop and search powers. This left Caroline Pidgeon, leader of the Liberal Democrats on the London Assembly, as the only remaining candidate. She was selected, winning 90% of the 3669 votes on a 39% turnout, against the option to Re-Open Nominations, as announced on 17 September 2015.
Pidgeon graduated from the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth in 1994, moving to London to work in local government and later for the National Health Service. She was elected as a councillor in Southwark in 1998, where she served until being elected to the London Assembly in 2008. She became leader of the Liberal Democrat assembly group, a position she held after their number was reduced to just 2 in the 2012 London Assembly Election, the same year in which she was awarded an MBE for public service. Pidgeon promised to focus on housing, affordable childcare, air pollution and public transport. She emphasised the need to ensure that workers can live in the city by using rent control and reducing public transport costs.
UK Independence Party.
The UK Independence Party (UKIP) candidate was chosen via a selection committee, unlike previous mayoral candidate selections that had been made by London-based party members. The supposed favourite for selection among party members was Suzanne Evans, UKIP Deputy Chairman, former Interim Leader, Welfare Spokesman and candidate for Shrewsbury and Atcham in the 2015 general election. Press such as "The Spectator" speculated that the decision had been moved to a committee to allow for the selection of national party leader Nigel Farage's preferred candidate, Peter Whittle, Culture Spokesman and candidate for Eltham in the 2015 general election.