2016 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 after 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.

Results

The first announcement of the first round results indicated that Khan was leading. However, this count was later retracted, and official results were delayed pending counting errors that reportedly misattributed "hundreds" of votes. When the full result, including second preference, votes was announced at about 00:30, Khan had increased his lead over Goldsmith.

There were a total of 2,596,961 valid votes and 49,871 rejected votes in the first round, a turnout of 45.3%. In the second round a further 381,862 had not declared a valid second preference, with a further 2,381 rejected for other reasons.

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.
* If a candidate receives over 50% of the first preference vote the candidate wins.
* If no candidate receives an overall majority, i.e., over 50% of first preference votes, the top two candidates proceed to a second round and all other candidates are eliminated.
* The first preference votes for the remaining two candidates stand in the final count.
* Voters' ballots whose first and second preference candidates are eliminated are discarded.
* Voters whose first preference candidates have been eliminated and whose second preference candidate is in the top two have their second preference votes added to the count.
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

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