The 2024 London mayoral election is scheduled to be held on 2 May 2024 to elect the

mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first Directly elected may ...

. The election will take place the same day as elections to the

London Assembly The London Assembly is a 25-member elected body, part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power, with a two-thirds super-majority, to amend the Mayor's annual budget and to reject ...

, as well as local elections across

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...

. Two-term incumbent

Sadiq Khan Sadiq Aman Khan (; born 8 October 1970) is a British politician serving as Mayor of London since 2016. He was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting from 2005 until 2016. A member of the Labour Party, Khan is on the party's sof ...

has indicated his intention to stand for a third term.

Background

Political context

First elected in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

of the Labour Party won a second term in office in the

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

election. As the previous contest was initially scheduled for 2020 before being delayed by the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

pandemic, Khan's current term only covers a three-year period. Khan has indicated that he plans to stand again for a third term in 2024. Polling in January 2022 found that 48% thought he was doing badly as mayor and 38% thought he was doing well. This gave him a net approval rating of -10%, the first time approval polling has been negative for Khan since he took office as mayor.

Electoral system

Under the

Elections Act 2022 The Elections Act 2022 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, introduced to the House of Commons in July 2021, and receiving Royal Assent on 28 April 2022. The Act introduces voter photo identification for in-person voting to Great Br ...

, in contrast to the supplementary vote system used in previous mayoral elections, the 2024 election will be held under a

first past the post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

system: the candidate receiving the highest number of votes will be elected mayor, even if they do not receive an overall majority. In January 2022, a report to the

also recommended that ballots be counted by hand, rather than electronically as at previous elections.

Candidates

Labour Party

It was officially announced on 20th December 2022 that two-term mayor

was reselected as Labour's mayoral candidate. This was following a vote of Labour members and Labour's affiliate unions to re-endorse him rather than to open up the selection process. There was media speculation in 2021 as to whether Khan would stand for a third term as mayor or attempt alternatively to stand for leader of the Labour Party in a future contest. Khan confirmed that he would stand again for a third term as

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first Directly elected may ...

. There were potential Labour candidate discussed by the media.

David Lammy David Lindon Lammy (born 19 July 1972) is an English politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs since 2021. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Tottenh ...

, MP for

Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...

and

Shadow Foreign Secretary In UK politics, the Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs is a position within the opposition's shadow cabinet that deals mainly with issues surrounding the Foreign Office. If elected, the person serving as ...

, has been mentioned as a possible Labour candidate should Khan not seek another term. Lammy had previously ran for Mayor in the 2016 election.

John Bercow John Simon Bercow (; born 19 January 1963) is a British former politician who was Speaker of the House of Commons from 2009 to 2019, and Member of Parliament (MP) for Buckingham between 1997 and 2019. A member of the Conservative Party prior to ...

, former

Speaker of the House of Commons Speaker of the House of Commons is a political leadership position found in countries that have a House of Commons, where the membership of the body elects a speaker to lead its proceedings. Systems that have such a position include: * Speaker of ...

, has also been mentioned as a possible contender.

Conservative Party

Expressed interest

* Samuel Kasumu, former Downing Street advisor * Shaun Bailey, member of the

and 2021 mayoral candidate File:Shaun Bailey 2020 (cropped).jpg, alt=, Shaun Bailey, member of the

Green Party

Declared

* Zoë Garbett,

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

councillor in the

London Borough of Hackney London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and 2022 candidate for Hackney Mayor

Independent

Potential

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

, MP for

Islington North Islington North () is a constituency in Greater London represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1983 by Jeremy Corbyn. He served as Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of Her Majesty's Opposition from 2015 to 2020. Co ...

; former Leader of the Labour Party and

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

File:Official portrait of Jeremy Corbyn crop 2, 2020.jpg, alt=,

, MP for

; former Leader of the Labour Party and

has been subject to speculation about a potential run. Elected as a member of the Labour Party, he currently sits as an independent MP, having had the whip withdrawn.

References

{{reflist

2024 Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1928 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ***''Steamboat Willie'', Walt Disney's fi ...

Future elections in the United Kingdom

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...