RESEARCH PAPER 08/47 20 MAY 2008 London elections 2008 Elections for Mayor of London and London Assembly: 1 May 2008 Elections for the Mayor of London and members of the London Assembly took place in London on 1 May 2008. The Conservative candidate, Boris Johnson, was elected as Mayor of London on an increased share of first preference Conservative votes compared to 2004 (+14.1% points). Turnout in the Mayoral election was 44.6 per cent, an increase of 8.7 percentage points compared with 2004. The composition of the London Assembly changed slightly as a result of the 2008 elections. The Conservatives gained two seats, Labour gained one seat, the Liberal Democrats lost two seats, the Green Party continued to have two seats (no change), and the British National Party won their first seat on the Assembly. The Conservatives are the largest party in the London Assembly (11 seats), Labour has 8 seats, the Liberal Democrats have three, the Greens have two, and the BNP has one seat. Turnout in the Assembly elections was 44.5 per cent, an increase of 8.5 percentage points compared with the elections held in 2004. Ross Young SOCIAL AND GENERAL STATISTICS SECTION HOUSE OF COMMONS LIBRARY Recent Library Research Papers include: 08/32 Economic Indicators, April 2008 01.04.08 08/33 Unemployment by Constituency, March 2008 16.04.08 08/34 Special Educational Needs (Information) Bill: Committee Stage 16.04.08 Report 08/35 Food Products (Marketing to Children) Bill [Bill 19 of 2007-08] 16.04.08 08/36 Transport in London 21.04.08 08/37 Social Indicators 23.04.08 08/38 2001 Census of Population: Statistics for New Parliamentary 23.04.08 Constituencies 08/39 Parliamentary Involvement in Public Appointments 23.04.08 08/40 Energy Bill: Committee Stage Report 23.04.08 08/41 Planning and Energy Bill: Committee Stage Report 30.04.08 08/42 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL] [Bill 70 of 2007-08] 02.05.08 08/43 Economic Indicators, May 2008 06.05.08 08/44 Children and Young Persons Bill [HL] [Bill No 8 of 2007-08] 08.05.08 08/45 Unemployment by Constituency, April 2008 14.05.08 08/46 Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL] 2007-08 16.05.08 [Bill 103 of 2007-08] Research Papers are available as PDF files: • to members of the general public on the Parliamentary web site, URL: http://www.parliament.uk • within Parliament to users of the Parliamentary Intranet, URL: http://hcl1.hclibrary.parliament.uk Library Research Papers are compiled for the benefit of Members of Parliament and their personal staff. Authors are available to discuss the contents of these papers with Members and their staff but cannot advise members of the general public. We welcome comments on our papers; these should be sent to the Research Publications Officer, Room 407, 1 Derby Gate, London, SW1A 2DG or e-mailed to [email protected] ISSN 1368-8456 Summary of main points Elections for the Mayor of London and London Assembly were held in London on 1 May 2008. Local authority elections in England and Wales, including elections for some “shadow” unitary authorities, were also held on the same day. Library Research Paper 08/48 sets out the results of the local elections. Library Research Paper 04/48 provides data on the previous elections for Mayor of London and the London Assembly, held in June 2004. Turnout in the 2008 Mayoral and Assembly elections was 44.6 per cent and 44.5 per cent respectively, almost nine percentage points higher than in 2004. Boris Johnson, the Conservative candidate, was elected as Mayor of London with 53.2 per cent of the vote. Ken Livingstone (Labour), the incumbent, polled 46.8 per cent. Brian Paddick, the Liberal Democrat candidate, was placed third, and the Siân Berry (Green) was fourth. The Conservatives continue to be the largest party in the London Assembly (11 seats), gaining two seats compared to the 2004 elections. Labour gained one seat (8 seats), the Liberal Democrats lost two seats (3 seats), and the Green Party continue to have 2 seats (no change). With 5.4 per cent of the London-wide ballot vote, 0.4 per cent above the necessary threshold, the British National Party secured one London-wide member on the Assembly, their first ever seat. The UK Independence Party lost both of the London-wide Assembly seats they won in 2004. CONTENTS I Mayor of London 7 A. Summary 7 B. Results by party 10 C. Results by constituency 15 II Greater London Authority 22 A. Summary 22 B. Results by constituency 28 C. Results by party 42 RESEARCH PAPER 08/47 I Mayor of London A. Summary The Mayor of London is elected by the Supplementary Vote System (SV). Under the SV system, voters mark the ballot paper with their first and second choices of candidates. This is done by placing an “X” - as is usual in other elections - rather than by numbering the list of candidates in their order of preference. Electors are not required to make two choices if they do not wish to. The counting of ballot papers is simple. Voters’ first preferences are counted and if one candidate receives 50 per cent of the vote or more they are elected. If no candidate receives 50 per cent of first preference votes, all remaining candidates, with the exception of the two candidates who received the highest number of votes, are eliminated. The second preference votes on the ballot papers of those eliminated candidates are then examined. Any second preference votes cast for the two remaining candidates are distributed accordingly. The candidate with the most votes at the end of this process is declared elected. Ballot papers where the first and second preference votes are for the top two candidates and not re-used, and the second preference votes are not redistributed to the leading two candidates. In 2008, 300,924 votes were not re- used. A similar proportion of these voters placed the Conservative candidate Boris Johnson first and Labour’s Ken Livingstone second as placed Ken Livingstone first and Boris Johnson second. The accompanying tables in this section detail the number of first and second preference votes for each of the candidates in the 2008 Mayoral elections. The second preferences of all but the leading two first preference candidates were redistributed to Boris Johnson (Conservative) and the incumbent Mayor Ken Livingstone (Labour). As a result, Boris Johnson polled 1,168,738 votes (53.2 per cent) and was elected as Mayor of London compared to Ken Livingstone’s overall vote total of 1,028,966 (46.8 per cent). Although Livingstone received more votes than in 2004 (+208,336 first preference votes and +52,681 second preference votes), his final vote share fell by 8.6 percentage points overall. Livingstone received relatively high shares of first preference votes in City and East (52.0 per cent) and North East (49.4 per cent) but polled less than 30 per cent of first preference votes in West Central (29.0 per cent), Croydon and Sutton (28.8 per cent, Havering and Redbridge (27.8 per cent), and Bexley and Bromley (20.3 per cent). The Conservative candidate, Boris Johnson, polled 1,043,761 first preference votes (43.2 per cent) and 257,792 second preference votes (12.9 per cent). The Conservatives’ first preference vote share rose by 14.1 percentage points compared to 2004 but fell by 1.1 percentage points in the second preference contest. Johnson secured particularly high first preference vote shares in Bexley and Bromley (60.8 per cent), West Central (55.6 per cent), and Havering and Redbridge (52.8 per cent) but polled less favourably in North East (29.4 per cent), Lambeth and Southwark (29.1 per cent), and City and East (27.2 per cent). The Labour and Conservative candidates secured 80.2 per cent of first preference votes overall, compared to 65.9 per cent in 2004. 7 RESEARCH PAPER 08/47 The Liberal Democrat candidate, Brian Paddick, was placed third. Paddick polled 236,685 first preference votes, a first preference vote share of 9.8 per cent. The Liberal Democrats polled a further 641,412 second preference votes (32.0 per cent). Paddick’s highest share of first preference votes was in South West (13.2 per cent), Lambeth and Southwark (12.5 per cent), and Croydon and Sutton (11.9 per cent). However, in Lambeth and Southwark, the Liberal Democrats’ first preference vote share fell by 10.0 per cent compared to 2004. The Liberal Democrats performed less well in West Central (8.4 per cent of first preference votes), Havering and Redbridge (7.3 per cent), and City and East (7.0 per cent). Overall, across London, the Liberal Democrats’ first preference vote share fell by 5.5 percentage points compared to 2004, although their second preference vote share rose by 2.7 per cent. Siân Berry, the Green candidate, was placed fourth in the Mayoral race. Berry polled 77,374 first preference votes (3.2%) and 331,727 second preference votes (16.6 per cent). Compared to 2004, the Greens increased their first preference vote share by just 0.1 percentage points, although their second preference vote share rose by 3.4 percentage points. Berry performed best in North East (5.0 per cent of first preference votes) and Lambeth and Southwark (4.4 per cent) but less well in Bexley and Bromley and Havering and Redbridge (1.9 and 1.8 per cent respectively).