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| Turnout | 45.3% 8.38pp | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 First preference votes by London borough. Blue boroughs are those with most first preference votes for Boris Johnson and red those for Ken Livingstone | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The2008 London mayoral election for the office ofMayor of London, England, was held on 1 May 2008.Conservative candidateBoris Johnson defeated incumbentLabour MayorKen Livingstone.[1] It was the third London mayoral election, the previous elections being thefirst election in May 2000 and thesecond election in June 2004.
Johnson became the second Mayor of London and the first Conservative to hold the office since its creation in 2000. This became the first London Mayoral election in which theincumbent mayor was defeated by a challenger. The popular vote achieved by Johnson remained the largest polled by winning mayoral candidate until Labour candidateSadiq Khan received 1,148,716 first-preference votes in2016.[2] The result was the first time that the Conservatives had won control of London-wide government since1977.[3]
The Conservative candidate was determined by aprimary election open to the entire London electorate, originally scheduled for October 2006. Candidates who had applied by 4 August deadline includedRichard Barnes,London Assembly member forEaling and Hillingdon, who withdrew in July 2007 and threw his support behindBoris Johnson;[4]Andrew Boff, formerHillingdon andHackney London Borough Councillor;Nicholas Boles,Policy Exchange think-tank director, who withdrew in July 2007 for health reasons; Dr Robert Frew, a cultural policy and management specialist;Victoria Borwick,Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Councillor;Warwick Lightfoot, also a Kensington and Chelsea councillor; and Lee Rotherham.Steven Norris, Conservative mayoral candidate in 2000 and 2004, ruled himself out.[5] BroadcasterNick Ferrari also considered seeking the nomination but eventually decided against it.[6]
By 4 August 2006 deadline, however, the process was delayed for six months to allow time for further candidates to submit applications.[7][8] Prospective applicants who subsequently publicly declared wereLurline Champagnie, aLondon Borough of Harrow councillor;Winston McKenzie, a former boxer;[9] and disc jockeyMike Read. Read withdrew in July 2007 following a change in the voting system for Conservative candidates, giving his support to Johnson.[10]
In April 2007 the Conservative party confirmed it had approached formerDirector-General of the BBCGreg 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.[11] Around this point former ConservativePrime MinisterSir John Major was considered a possible candidate, but he turned down an offer fromDavid Cameron.[12]
Following media and members' criticism over the party's selection procedure,[13][14] the party chairman revised the timetable requiring a candidate to be in place before the party conference at the end of September 2007.[15] In June 2007, the party scheduled the selection process to conclude on 27 September 2007.[16]
On 16 July, shortly before the noon deadline for nominations,Boris Johnson confirmed he would seek the Conservative nomination.[17] A final four of Johnson, Boff, Borwick and Lightfoot were chosen[18] on 21 July for the primary election.[18] On 27 September 2007, Johnson won 75% of the vote and, thus, the nomination.[19]
On 3 May 2007, following consultations with London Labour Party members, theLabour Party selectedKen Livingstone, theincumbent mayor, as their mayoral candidate.[20]
Following a split in theRespect Party at the end of 2007, theGeorge Galloway-led faction (also referred to asRespect Renewal) retained the rights to the use of the name in elections. TheSocialist Workers Party-dominated faction put forwardLindsey German under theLeft List banner. Galloway's faction did not put forward a candidate, though Galloway declared his support for Ken Livingstone.[21]
In July 2007, theEnglish Democrats nominatedTalksport presenterGarry Bushell as a candidate in the 2008 election. In January 2008, Bushell stepped aside (due to work commitments) in favour ofFathers-4-Justice campaignerMatt O'Connor, who successfully stood against Andrew Constantine, a City of London Banker, in a selection contest. O'Connor was also their last London-wide list Assembly candidate. O'Connor withdrew on 25 April, after he fell out with the party over leadership, campaign funding and tactics.
The Liberal Democrats drew up a shortlist in September 2007 with a final choice made by aone member, one vote ballot of party members.[22]Simon Hughes, the party's 2004 mayoral candidate, did not stand.[23] The ballot was won by former police chiefBrian Paddick. who defeated Chamali Fernando and Councillor Fiyaz Mughal.
On 9 May 2007, theBritish National Party selectedRichard Barnbrook, leader of the opposition onBarking & Dagenham Borough Council, and a member of the party's National Advisory Committee, to stand for election in 2008.[24]
At theUK Independence Party (UKIP) 2007 party conference,Gerard Batten who was the UKIP MEP for the London region was selected to contest the London Mayoral Election.
In October 2006, UKIP talked ofTalksport presenterJames Whale standing against Ken Livingstone in the 2008 election.[25] The government's media authorityOfcom 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.[26]
On 12 March 2007 the party selectedSiân Berry as its mayoral candidate after a ballot of its London members, receiving 45% of the vote.[27] The other candidates wereShahrar Ali, Shane Collins, Katie Dawson and Terry McGrenera. Berry was also one of their Assembly candidates.[28]
In December 2007 former boxerWinston 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.[29]
On 12 FebruaryAlan Craig was selected by the Christian Choice Party to stand in the Mayoral election.[30] The Christian Choice Party are an alliance between theChristian Party and theChristian Peoples Alliance.
There were a significant number of people who claimed that they were planning to stand, but did not submit valid nomination papers.
TheOne London Party chose their leader,Damian Hockney, as candidate[31] 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".[32]
The London listings magazineTime Out planned to recruit a self-financing candidate to stand on a manifesto agreed by its readers.[33] In February 2008 it confirmed that columnist Michael Hodges would be its candidate, standing on a reformist ticket.[34] 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.[35]
In March 2007 following widespread speculation thatJohn Bird, founder ofThe Big Issue, would seek the Conservative nomination,[36] he stated 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.[37]
Chris Prior planned to stand on a platform to abolish the congestion charge[38] for theLondon Assembly but pulled out of the mayoral race shortly before the close of nominations.
On 21 February 2008Dennis Delderfield was nominated by theNew Britain Party. He said he would abolish the Mayoral office and theGreater London Authority (GLA).[39] He did not submit a valid nomination.
John Flunder was to be the Senior Citizens Party candidate for Mayor of London[40][41] 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.[42] 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.[43]
In April 2007Richard Fairbrass, the lead singer of pop bandRight Said Fred, considered standing for Mayor of London on a platform of opposition to theLondon congestion charge.[44] In December 2007 media reports that peace protesterBrian Haw would stand for Mayor of London[45][46] remained unsubstantiated.[47]
Thesupplementary vote system is used for allmayoral elections in England and Wales. Under this system voters express a first preference and (optionally) a second preference. If no candidate is the first choice of a majority of voters (i.e. more than 50%), the top two candidates proceed to a second round. Voters whose first choice has been eliminated have their second preferences scrutinised, in order to determine which of the remaining candidates is favoured by a majority of all voters who have expressed a preference between the two. This gives a result whereby the winning candidate has the support of a majority of votes cast (at least by those who expressed a preference among the top two).
 | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(May 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Various parties recommended a variety of second preferences to their supporters. Labour and the Greens formed a second preference pact, urging Livingstone supporters to give their second choice vote to Berry andvice 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.
Votes were counted using anoptical 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 toLondon Elects - take up to 3 days.[48] Election observers[49] 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."[50] London Elects have been unable to publish an audit of some of the software used in the count.[51] TheOpen Rights Group reports that there was equipment directly connected to the counting servers to which observers had limited or no access and that the presence of error messages, bugs and system freezes indicates poor software quality.[52]
| Date | Pollster | First Preferences | Final Round | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Livingstone | Johnson | Paddick | Batten | Berry | Barnbrook | Others | Livingstone | Johnson | ||
| 01/05/08 | Election Results | 37.0% | 43.2% | 9.8% | 0.9% | 3.2% | 2.9% | 3.0% | 46.9% | 53.2% |
| 30/04/08 | YouGovArchived 28 December 2016 at theWayback Machine | 36% | 43% | 13% | 1% | 2% | 2% | 3% | 47% | 53% |
| 28/04/08 | YouGovArchived 28 December 2016 at theWayback Machine | 35% | 46% | 12% | 1% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 45% | 55% |
| 27/04/08 | mruk CelloArchived 28 December 2016 at theWayback Machine | 44% | 43% | 9% | - | - | - | 4% | 51% | 49% |
| 24/04/08 | Ipsos MORIArchived 28 December 2016 at theWayback Machine | 41% | 38% | 12% | - | - | - | 9% | 52% | 48% |
| 18/04/08 | YouGovArchived 28 December 2016 at theWayback Machine | 37% | 44% | 12% | 1% | 3% | 1% | 2% | 47% | 53% |
| 14/04/08 | mruk CelloArchived 28 December 2016 at theWayback Machine | 45% | 44% | 9% | - | - | - | 2% | 50% | 50% |
| 11/04/08 | YouGovArchived 28 December 2016 at theWayback Machine | 39% | 45% | 12% | 1% | 2% | 1% | 0% | 46% | 54% |
| 09/04/08 | Ipsos MORIArchived 28 December 2016 at theWayback Machine | 40% | 46% | 11% | 1% | 2% | 0% | 0% | 49% | 51% |
| 07/04/08 | Ipsos MORIArchived 28 December 2016 at theWayback Machine | 41% | 40% | 14% | 0% | 5% | 0% | 0% | 49% | 51% |
| 04/04/08 | YouGovArchived 28 December 2016 at theWayback Machine | 36% | 49% | 10% | 1% | 2% | 1% | 1% | 44% | 56% |
| 01/04/08 | ICMArchived 28 December 2016 at theWayback Machine | 41% | 42% | 10% | 0% | 4% | 1% | 2% | 49% | 51% |
| Date | Pollster | First Preferences | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Livingstone | Johnson | Paddick | Batten | Berry | Barnbrook | Others | ||
| 25/03/08 | YouGovArchived 28 December 2016 at theWayback Machine | 37% | 47% | 10% | 0% | 2% | 1% | 3% |
| 14/03/08 | YouGovArchived 28 December 2016 at theWayback Machine | 37% | 49% | 12% | 0% | 1% | 1% | 0% |
| 21/02/08 | YouGovArchived 28 December 2016 at theWayback Machine | 39% | 44% | 12% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 2% |
| 12/02/08 | Ipsos MORIArchived 28 December 2016 at theWayback Machine | 42% | 38% | 16% | 1% | 2% | 1% | 0% |
| 24/01/08 | YouGovArchived 28 December 2016 at theWayback Machine | 44% | 40% | 8% | 2% | 1% | 1% | 4% |
| Date | Pollster | First Preferences | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Livingstone | Johnson | Paddick | Others | |||
| 21/12/07 | YouGovArchived 28 December 2016 at theWayback Machine | 45% | 44% | 7% | 4% | |
| 09/11/07 | YouGovArchived 28 December 2016 at theWayback Machine | 45% | 39% | 8% | 8% | |
| Mayor of London election 1 May 2008[53] | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | 1st round votesTransfer votes, 2nd round | ||||
| Total | Of round | Transfers | Total | Of round | ||||
| Conservative | Boris Johnson | 1,043,761 | 43.2% | 124,977 | 1,168,738 | 53.2% | | |
| Labour | Ken Livingstone | 893,877 | 37.0% | 134,089 | 1,027,966 | 46.8% | | |
| Liberal Democrats | Brian Paddick | 236,685 | 9.8% | | ||||
| Green | Siân Berry | 77,347 | 3.2% | | ||||
| BNP | Richard Barnbrook | 69,710 | 2.9% | | ||||
| CPA | Alan Craig | 39,249 | 1.6% | | ||||
| UKIP | Gerard Batten | 22,422 | 0.9% | | ||||
| Left List | Lindsey German | 16,796 | 0.7% | | ||||
| English Democrat | Matt O'Connor | 10,695 | 0.4% | | ||||
| Independent | Winston McKenzie | 5,389 | 0.2% | | ||||
| Conservativegain fromLabour | ||||||||
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