He started the election widely viewed as a clown with no chance of winning but almost 2 days after voting begun in the third Greater London Authority elections Boris Johnson was confirmed as the new Mayor of London.
Throughout the election several polls predicted a comfortable double digit margin of victory for Mr Johnson but in the end he secured a total of 1,168,738 votes against Ken Livingstone’s 1,028,966.
LibDem candidate Brian Paddick limped into third place with just 236,685 – almost 50,000 less than Simon Hughes scored for the party in 2004.
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The results for the other seven Mayoral candidates were Siân Berry (Green Party) 77,374 votes, Richard Barnbrook (British National Party) 69,710 votes, Alan Craig (Christian Peoples Alliance and Christian Party) 39,249 votes, Gerard Batten (UK Independence Party) 22,422 votes, Lindsey German (Left List) 16,796 votes, Matt O’Connor (English Democrats) 10,695 and Winston McKenzie (Independent) 5,389 votes.
In his acceptance speech a measured Mr Johnson thanked his family and campaign team as well as those Londoners who voted for him.
He also sought to reach out to those who didn’t support him and paid warm tribute to his defeated rival who vowed to help the new Mayor.
After the declaration Johnson and Livingstone held a private meeting in a side room – see picture above.
