London Elections 2021
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BRIEFING PAPER Number CBP9231, 21 May 2021 By Brigid Francis-Devine London Elections 2021 Inside: 1. How London votes 2. Party summaries 3. Candidates 4. Mayoral election – issues 5. Mayoral election - results 6. London Assembly elections 7. Comparison of Mayoral and Assembly results 8. Turnout Appendix I: Mayoral election - first preference votes Appendix II: Mayoral election - second preference votes Appendix III: Votes cast in Assembly constituency election Appendix IV: Votes cast in Assembly London-wide election www.parliament.uk/commons-library | intranet.parliament.uk/commons-library | [email protected] | @commonslibrary Number CBP9231, 21 May 2021 2 Contents Summary 3 1. How London votes 4 2. Party summaries 6 Labour summary 6 Conservatives summary 8 Green summary 10 Liberal Democrat summary 12 3. Candidates 14 4. Mayoral election – issues 16 4.1 Crime and policing 16 4.2 Housing 16 4.3 Jobs and a Covid recovery 16 4.4 Transport 17 4.5 Environment/air quality 17 4.6 Other issues 17 5. Mayoral election - results 18 6. London Assembly elections 21 7. Comparison of Mayoral and Assembly results 25 8. Turnout 29 8.1 Rejected ballots 30 Appendix I: Mayoral election - first preference votes 31 Appendix II: Mayoral election - second preference votes 32 Appendix III: Votes cast in Assembly constituency election 33 Appendix IV: Votes cast in Assembly London-wide election 34 3 London Elections 2021 Summary Elections for the London Mayor and London Assembly were held on 6 May 2021. • Labour candidate Sadiq Khan was elected as Mayor of London. Khan won 1,013,721 first preference votes (40.0%), compared to 893,051 for Conservative Party candidate Shaun Bailey (35.3%). The total number of votes cast for Khan rose to 1,206,034 after second preference votes were redistributed, ahead of Bailey, with 977,601 votes. • The Green Party’s candidate for Mayor, Siân Berry, came third with 197,976 first preference votes. Luisa Porritt of the Liberal Democrats finished fourth with 111,716 first preference votes. • Out of the 2,531,357 people who cast a valid vote in the first round of the mayoral election, 314,893, or 12.4% did not vote for the top four parties as their first preference. • Labour won 11 of the 25 seats in the London Assembly elections, one fewer than in 2016, and remain the largest party in the Assembly. They won 41.7% of the Assembly constituency votes, down from 43.5% in 2016. • The Conservatives have 9 seats, one more than in 2016. The Green Party and Liberal Democrats both gained one seat, and now the Green Party hold three seats and the Liberal Democrats hold two. 2021 London Assembly elections: elected Members Constituency Members London-wide Members LAB Anne Clarke Barnet & Camden LAB Elly Baker LAB Krupesh Hirani Brent & Harrow LAB Sakina Sheikh LAB Unmesh Desai City & East CON Emma Best LAB Onkar Sahota Ealing & Hillingdon CON Susan Hall LAB Joanne McCartney Enfield & Haringey CON Shaun Bailey LAB Len Duvall Grewich & Lewisham CON Andrew Boff LAB Marina Ahmad Lambeth & Southwark GRN Siân Berry LAB Léonie Cooper Merton & Wandsworth GRN Caroline Russell LAB Sam Moema North East GRN Zack Polanski CON Peter Timothy Bexley & Bromley LD Caroline Pidgeon CON Neil Garratt Croydon & Sutton LD Hina Bokhari CON Keith Prince Havering & Redbridge CON Nicholas Rogers South West CON Tony Devenish West Central • Turnout was 40.9% in the mayoral election, down from 45.2% in 2016. Turnout was 41.8% in the Assembly London-wide election, up from 45.6% in 2016. • Elections were also held on the same day for the Welsh Assembly, Scottish Parliament, local councils and mayors in some English local authorities, and Police and Crime Commissioners in England and Wales. Number CBP9231, 21 May 2021 4 1. How London votes The Greater London Authority was established in 2000. Elections for the Results Mayor of London and the 25 Members of the London Assembly take The results data place every four years. published in this paper Elections were due to take place on 7 May 2020 but were postponed are as published on the until 6 May 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, under sections 59- London elects website 70 of the Coronavirus Act.1 More information on the process by which the elections were postponed and measures taken to allow the elections to go ahead in 2021 is in Library briefing paper, Coronavirus: elections. Like other mayors in England, the Mayor of London is elected using the Supplementary Vote system. Voters select a first and a second preference candidate. If no candidate receives more than half of first preference votes, the two candidates who received the most first preference votes go through to a second round, where any second preference votes for these two candidates are redistributed. The candidate who receives the most votes at the end of this process is elected. If a voter selects the same candidate as their first and second preference, the second preference vote is not counted. Similarly, if a voter cast their first preference vote for one of the two candidates in the second round, then their second preference vote is not counted. The UK Government has announced its intention to change the voting system for the Mayor of London (as for well as combined authority mayors and police and crime commissioners) to first-past-the-post in future elections.3 There are fourteen London Assembly Members representing Assembly constituencies and eleven London-wide Members. They are elected using the Additional Member System (also used in elections for the Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales). Two separate ballots are held. Constituency members are elected using the First Past the Post voting system, where the winner of the plurality of votes wins the seat). The other (London-wide) ballot is used to elect London-wide Members from a party list of candidates. Once the constituency Box 1: The Greater London Authority turns 21 The abolition of the Greater London Council in 1986 left London as a whole without a directly elected government for the first time in almost 100 years. Following a referendum in May 1998, the Greater London Authority Act 1999 was passed, establishing the Greater London Authority (GLA). The first mayoral and Assembly elections were held in May 2000.2 Library paper The Greater London Authority provides more information on the role and powers of the Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority. 1 Institute for Government, Delaying elections, 28 January 2021 2 Institute for Government, Elections 2021: the mayor of London and London Assembly, 8 April 2021 3 Statement UIN HCWS849, Concluding Part One of the Police and Crime Commissioner Review, 16 March 2021 5 London Elections 2021 Members are elected, the eleven London-wide seats are allocated between the parties based on their vote share in the London-wide ballot and taking into account how many seats they already have. The fourteen Assembly constituencies are built up from London boroughs: The fourteen Assembly constituencies are built up from London boroughs Assembly Assembly constituency London boroughs constituency London boroughs Barnet & Barnet Greenwich & Greenwich Camden Camden Lewisham Lewisham Bexley & Bexley Havering & Havering Bromley Bromley Redbridge Redbridge Brent & Brent Lambeth & Lambeth Harrow Harrow Southwark Southwark City of London Merton & Merton Barking & Dagenham Wandsworth City & East Wandsworth Newham Tower Hamlets Croydon North East Hackney Croydon & Sutton Islington Sutton Waltham Forest Ealing South West Hounslow Ealing & Hillingdon Kingston upon Thames Hillingdon Richmond upon Thames Enfield West Central Hammersmith & Fulham Enfield & Haringey Kensington & Chelsea Haringey Westminster Labour • Labour Party candidate Sadiq Khan has been London mayor since 2016 and won the 2021 mayoral elections. The highest level of support for Khan was found in North East London, and the lowest in Bexley and Bromley. Labour candidate Ken Livingstone won the mayoral elections in 2004. • In 2021 Labour won 11 London Assembly seats including 9 constituency seats, the same as 2016, and 2 London-wide seats, 1 less than 2016. • The Labour Party won comparable vote shares (between 38% and 42%) in all three London elections. Khan received a lower share of the vote in the first round of the mayoral elections (40.0%) than the Labour party did in the Assembly elections (41.7%). Summary: votes and seats 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2021 Mayoral election Votes (1st round) 223,884 685,548 893,877 889,918 1,148,716 1,013,721 % votes 13% 37% 37% 40% 44% 40% Constituency seats 6 5 6 8 9 9 Votes 501,296 444,738 673,855 933,438 1,138,576 1,083,215 % votes 32% 25% 28% 42% 44% 42% Seats 6 5 6 8 9 9 Constituency seats 32% 25% 28% 42% 44% 42% London-wide seats 3 2 2 4 3 2 Votes 502,874 468,247 665,443 911,208 1,054,801 986,609 % votes 30% 25% 28% 41% 40% 38% Seats 3 2 2 4 3 2 London-wide seats 30% 25% 28% 41% 40% 38% Assembly total Seats 9 7 8 12 12 11 % seats 36% 28% 32% 48% 48% 44% Note: Labour candidate Ken Livingston was elected Mayor of London in 2004, and Sadiq Khan in 2016 Assembly share of the vote Assembly seats 45% 12 Constituency seats 10 London-wide seats 30% 8 6 15% Constituency seats 4 London-wide seats 2 0% 0 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2021 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2021 Mayoral first round share of the vote 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Haringey North East North & Lambeth & East City & Greenwich Wandsworth London & Barnet Brent& Hillingdon WestCentral South West Croydon & Havering & Bexley& Enfield & Enfield Harrow Bromley Southwark Camden Redbridge Ealing & Ealing Lewisham Merton & Sutton London elections 2021 - Labour Party Constituency ballot London-wide ballot % vote share % vote share 0 - 20% (0) 0 - 20% (0) 20% - 30% (2) 20% - 30% (2) 30-35% (1) 30-35% (1) 35%-45% (5) 35%-45% (5) 45%+ (6) 45%+ (6) Mayoral ballot - percentage share of first preference votes % vote share 0 - 20% (0) 20% - 30% (2) 30-35% (1) 35%-45% (5) 45%+ (6) Conservative • Boris Johnson was London Mayor between 2008 and 2016, but Conservative Party candidate Shaun Bailey did not win the mayoral election in 2021.