Mayor of London

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The Mayor of London is an elected politician in London. The role, created in 2000, was the first directly-elected mayor in the United Kingdom. The Mayor of London is also referred to as the London Mayor, a form which helps to avoid confusion with the Lord Mayor of the City of London, the ancient and now mainly ceremonial role in the City of London. The Mayor of London is mayor of Greater London, which has a population of over 7.5 million while the City of London is only a small part of the modern city centre and has a population of less than 10,000. The first, and current, elected Mayor of London is Ken Livingstone, who was re-elected in 2004.

Role

The Mayor is responsible for budgeting and strategic planning of some governmental functions across the whole of the London region. The plans of the mayor are scrutinised by the London Assembly and actioned by the Greater London Authority. Responsibilities include transport, the police, fire and emergency services, cultural strategy and economic development.

Additional powers

The Department for Communities and Local Government announced its final proposals for new powers for the Mayor on Thursday 13th July 2006.

These provide for a strengthened role over planning in the capital; and additional strategic powers in a wide range of policy areas including waste, culture and sport, health, climate change and appointments to the boards of the functional bodies.

Elections

The Mayor of London is elected for a fixed term of four years, with the first election held in May 2000. As with most elected posts in the UK, there is a deposit, in this case of £10,000, which is returnable on the candidate's winning at least 5% of the first-choice votes cast. The post was created after a 1998 referendum.

2000

The 2000 campaign was incident-filled. The eventual winner, Ken Livingstone, went back on an earlier pledge not to run as an independent after losing the Labour nomination to Frank Dobson.

The Conservative Party had to replace Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare as their candidate when he was charged with perjury; Steve Norris was elected as his replacement. The Liberal Democrat candidate was Susan Kramer.

2004

In 2004, the second election was held. After being re-admitted to the Labour Party, Ken Livingstone was their official candidate. He won re-election after second preference votes were counted, with Steve Norris again coming second.

London Mayoral Election Results 2004
	Name	Party	1st Preference Votes	%	2nd Preference Votes¹	%	Final	%²
Ken Livingstone	Labour	685,541	35.7	250,517	13.0	828,380	55.4
Steven Norris	Conservative	542,423	28.2	222,559	11.6	667,178	44.6
Simon Hughes	Lib Dem	284,645	14.8	465,704	24.3	N/A
Frank Maloney	UKIP	115,665	6.0	193,157	10.0	N/A
Lindsey German	RESPECT	61,731	3.2	63,294	3.3	N/A
Julian Leppert	BNP	58,405	3.0	70,736	3.7	N/A
Darren Johnson	Green	57,331	2.9	208,686	10.9	N/A
Ram Gidoomal	CPA	41,696	2.2	56,721	2.9	N/A
Lorna Reid	IWCA	9,542	0.5	39,678	2.1	N/A
Tammy Nagalingam	Independent	6,692	0.4	20,391	1.1	N/A

¹Second preference votes are only used to elect the mayor if no single candidate receives more than 50% of the vote. The top two candidates then receive the second preference votes from their eliminated opponents.

²Percentage figures are not officially used on the final votes, they are produced here for illustration and are calculated by the candidates final vote divided by the total of final votes.

2008

London Mayoral Election 2008 - Announced Candidates
	Name	Party
Ken Livingstone	Labour
Boris Johnson	Conservative
Brian Paddick	Lib Dem
Siân Berry	Green
Gerard Batten	UKIP
Lindsey German	RESPECT
Richard Barnbrook	BNP
Alan Craig	CPA
Damian Hockney	One London
Matt O'Connor	English Democrats

Mayors

Name		Portrait	Entered office	Left office	Political party
	Ken Livingstone		May 4 2000	Incumbent	Independent 2000-2004 Labour 2004-Present

Initiatives

Initiatives taken by Ken Livingstone as Mayor of London include the Congestion charge on private vehicles using Central London on weekdays, the creation of the London Climate Change Agency, the London Energy Partnership

and the founding of the international Large Cities Climate Leadership Group, now known as C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group.

They have also included the London Partnerships Register which was a voluntary scheme without legal force for same-sex couples to register their partnership, and paved the way for the introduction by the United Kingdom Parliament of civil partnerships. Unlike civil partnerships, the London Partnerships Register was open to heterosexual couples who favour a public commitment other than marriage.

The Mayor of London is also a key player and supporter in the bid for the London Olympic 2012 bid, and is known to always encourage sport in London; especially when sport can be combined with helping UK charities-like The London Marathon and British 10K charity races. In the summer of 2007 he brought the World famous Tour de France cycle race to London.

Salary

The Mayor of London's salary is one that ranks along that of a government Cabinet ministers'. The current salary is £137,579 per year

External links

Mayor of London website
Page about the process of nomination
Page about Ken Livingstone's relationship with Labour
Report by The Bow Group into Ken Livingstone

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Last updated on Monday March 03, 2008 at 16:09:45 PST (GMT -0800)
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