After a consistent run of strong poll leads throughout the contest, Labour’s Sadiq Khan is expected to defeat Tory rival Zac Goldsmith and succeed Boris Johnson.
Victory for Mr Khan would make him not only London’s most senior politician but also Labour’s most important officeholder.
After polling stations closed last night, Tory London Assembly member Andrew Boff joined those expressing concern with the tone of Mr Goldsmith’s campaign.
During the election the Richmond Park MP’s team sought to associate Mr Khan with the “radical” and “extremist” views expressed by a number of people who spoke at events Khan had attended.
They also targeted London’s ethnic communities with leaflets highlighting what they perceived to be community-specific concerns such as Labour’s support for a wealth tax and Mr Khan’s “failure” to meet Indian Prime Minister Modi.
Critics, including some Conservative figures, had accused Mr Goldsmith of running a “dogwhistle” campaign but speaking to BBC Two’s Newsnight programme, Mr Boff said: “I don’t think it was a dog whistle because you can’t hear a dog whistle — everybody could hear this.”
He added: “It was effectively saying that people of conservative religious views are not to be trusted and you shouldn’t share a platform with them. That’s outrageous.”
However these comments were dismissed by former Tory cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith who told the BBC’s election programme that Goldsmith had played it “straight” and predicted he “will have done much better than the polls suggest.”
In addition to the mayoral result, the winners of the 25 London Assembly seats will also be announced today.
Fourteen are elected on ‘first past the post’ constituencies with a further 11 allocated to parties based on their share of the vote in an all-London ballot.
In each of the elections held to date the constituency seats have been won by Labour and the Conservatives with smaller parties, including the Liberal Democrats, Greens and UKIP, winning seats via the London-wide ballot.
Some polling suggests that UKIP, which last won a seat in 2004, could emerge as the third largest party ahead of the Liberal Democrats and Greens.
Results for the constituency seats will be declared throughout the day with the London Assembly list and Mayoral result expected on Friday evening.
Live results can be seen at londonelects.org.uk
