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Boris Johnson re-elected Mayor for second term as Livingstone bows out with emotional final speech

Boris Johnson re-elected Mayor for second term as Livingstone bows out with emotional final speech

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Pic: Steven Ren

EastLondonLines live-blogged the counting of the votes in the elections for London’s Mayor and the Greater London Assembly. See below for a summary of the night.

  • Boris Johnson was re-elected as Mayor of London for a second term with a margin of 62,538 over Ken Livingstone – 51.5 per cent for Boris and 48.5 per cent for Ken.
  • Green Party’s Jenny Jones came third, and Liberal Democrat Brian Paddick came fourth.
  • A closer race than expected was delayed by a recount at Brent & Harrow caused by problems with damaged ballots.
  • Independent Siobhan Benita came fifth, UKIP’s Lawrence Webb came sixth and the BNP’s Carlos Cortiglia came seventh.

LIVE UPDATES:

 

02:10 That’s it from us at EastLondonLines – we’re signing off. Thanks for reading, and have a good four years.

01:55 The picture at the end of the night shows few surprises in EastLondonLines boroughs. All four candidates keeping their seats, although Steve O’Connell (Conservative) lost 75 per cent of his formerly strong majority in Croydon and Sutton to Labour’s Louisa Woodley. In City and East, North East and Lewisham and Greenwich, Labour retained their hold, keeping John Biggs, Jennette Arnold and Len Duvall in the Assembly. They did so amidst Labour gains across the city, with the party wresting Ealing & Hillingdon and Barnet & Camden from the Conservatives.

But turnout has been disappointing at only 38 per cent: it seems London’s response to tough times is to disengage rather than to rouse with anger. The so-called personality contest did little to provoke a reaction from the electorate. Although Siobhan Benita had some luck in engaging young voters, we don’t know whether this meant much in the long run. Jenny Jones did better than expected, coming in third place, but ultimately Boris’ 3-point margin over Ken is not shocking.

The losers in this election have been Brian Paddick, whose first-preference votes plummeted from 2008, and UKIP – or should we say Fresh Choice for London, as they were mistakenly labelled on ballot papers. This mistake may have sunk an otherwise promising campaign – City and East candidate Steven Woolfe was tipped to join the Assembly as a list candidate.

Otherwise, it has been a day expectations fulfilled across the country, with Labour gains that many predicted. The BNP, however, have been all but wiped out as an electoral force in England, losing all of the seats they contested; their poor showing in the London elections is likewise a welcome one. With Ken Livingstone’s retirement from politics, this marks the end of an era.

 

01:40 Ross Lydall at the Evening Standard has written that the London Assembly is seeing a split between east and west London. Tories have kept their seats in the south and west – though with difficulty – and Labour have swept the north and east as expected.

The London Assembly was facing an east-west split with the Tories retaining seats in the south and west of the capital on reduced majorities and Labour on course for thumping victories in the north and east.<

Boris Johnson saw his “statutory” deputy mayor Richard Barnes booted out of the assembly after 12 years. He was ousted from Ealing and Hillingdon by Labour’s Onkar Sahota, an Ealing GP. Early Tory successes saw Richard Tracey hold Merton and Wandsworth and James Cleverly hold Bexley and Bromley. But wobbles started when Steve O’Connell’s Conservative majority in Croydon and Sutton was slashed from 42,665 to 9,418.

Labour wins included Len Duvall in Greenwich and Lewisham and Ken Livingstone’s prospective deputy mayor Val Shawcross in Lambeth and Southwark and it was set to claim the scalp of Tory Brian Coleman in Barnet and Camden.

The loss of Mr Barnes and prospect of defeat for Mr Coleman put Mr Johnson close to failing to get the nine assembly members he needs to prevent his budgets for City Hall and the Met being voted down. Insiders said Mr Barnes might have suffered a backlash over the feared closure of Ealing Hospital and the effect  the HS2 train line may have on homes.

The BBC has an interesting map with full results here.

 

01:25 The London-wide Assembly results are in. With a turnout of 38 per cent, here London Elects reveals them online:

Labour: 12
Conservative: 9
Green: 2
Lib Dems: 2

01:22 Hugo Goodridge spoke to Tessa Jowell before the anouncement of the results and asked if Ken was the right choice for Labour.

 

01:19 Meanwhile, in the world outside, Labour gained 823 councillors, the Conservatives lost 405, and the Liberal Democrats 336. Their projected national shares of the vote were 38 per cent for Labour, 31 per cent for the Conservatives and 16 per cent for the Lib Dems.

01:00 Boris beat Ken by 51.1 per cent to 48.5 per cent- a margin of three points.

00:48 City Hall editor for the Evening Standard, Pippa Crerar, tweets about Ken’s plans for the future:

 

00:37 We are still awaiting the results for the London-wide Assembly candidates, elected proportionally from across the City. Meanwhile, rival parties are bitterly recriminating each other on Radio 5, arguing over Ken’s campaign with an ardor that the formal cessation of the contest hardly seems to have dampened.

00:33 Compared to 2008, Boris Johnson lost over 70,000 of first-preference votes, but Ken Livingstone also lost a few thousand. The Green Party have gained just over 20,000, while Brian Paddick, along with his party nationally, has suffered, losing over half of his first-preference votes: 236,685 then, 91,774 now.

 

00:23 Brian Paddick and Jenny Jones’ speeches were shorter. The former policeman thanked Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, who appeared on television earlier throughout the day looking fairly despondent, for showing strong leadership during “times of adversity.”

Jenny Jones joked and sparred with the audience, chuffed at third place, and claimed that social justice cannot be untangled from “environmental justice.” Some eyebrows raised at her reference to the 17th-century Levellers – a group of social rebels during the English Civil War who sought to establish democratic principles at a time of absolute monarchy.

 

00:18  Ken Livingstone gave an emotional and quite moving speech in which he declared that this has been his “last election.”

After congratulating Boris for winning another term, he said: “I want to thank every Londoner who came out and voted for me yesterday after a pretty gruelling campaign. I also want to apologise to all those people.

“I’m truly sorry, I couldn’t pull this victory off. But I am incredibly proud of my team.”

“Boris, this election is no mandate for a fare increase. This is my last election; 41 years ago I won my first election and introduced a free bus pass. I am sincerely sorry to those Londoners who desperately wanted us to win.”

He also took a shot at many media organisations, claiming there had been “bias”. He said: “Some papers depicted this election as a conflict between two men when in reality it was about the lives of 8 million Londoners.”

“London is the most amazing city, but our children must be able to find jobs and homes within it.”

 

00:14 Here are the highlights of Johnson’s winning speech. Ken’s is soon to come.

Boris: “Thank you everybody. Next time you might do it by hand and speed it up…”

He says the world “will see a city going through a neo-Victorian surge”; “the murder rate is down 25%, the Olympic an Paralympic venues have been completed on time and on budget; we’ve been cutting council tax and getting more police on the street.”

“I will dedicate myself to making sure Londoners, and young Londoners are ready to take the jobs this amazing city creates.” He promises “a good deal from the government” and talks of a “long and gruelling campaign.”

Finally, addressing Ken, he said: “Last time, we stood here, and I said some complimentary things about you – fat lot of good it did me – but I will repeat them. Of all the left wing politicians you are amongst the most creative and original.”

Thanking his campaign team, his family, and the people of London – “the people who voted for me, the people who didn’t, the people who thought about it and then did, the people who thought about it and then didn’t…” – and said that “tonight we will celebrate sensible and cost-effective administration”. He finished with a reference to yesterday’s Star Wars celebrations: “May the fourth be with you.”

 

00:00 At the strike of midnight, Boris Johnson has been re-elected Mayor of London. Johnson has just concluded his winning speech, which we will have up in a minute.

23:57 The first preference votes are in:

Siobhan Benita (Independent): 83,914
Carlos Cortiglia (British National Party): 28,741
Boris Johnson (Conservative Party): 971,931
Jenny Jones (Green Party): 98,913
Ken Livingstone (Labour Party): 889,918
Brian Paddick (Lib Dems): 91,774
Lawrence Webb (UKIP): 20

Only Boris and Livingstone are through to the second round. With second preference votes:

Johnson: A total of 1,054,811
Livingstone: A total of 992,273.

 

23:55 And here’s our interview with Independent candidate Siobhan Benita:

 

Siobahn Bernita interviewed by Hugo Goodridge pic: Heidi Gao

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

23:47 Here’s our interview with Green Party candidate Jenny Jones, by our reporter Hugo Goodridge.

 

 

Jenny Jones interviewed by Hugo Goodridge pic: Heidi Gao

Jenny Jones interviewed by Hugo Goodridge pic: Heidi Gao

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

23:42 A tannoy announcement has called agents of candidates to Committee Room 3; it’s now been around 15 minutes since the last ten minute warning. Meanwhile, PoliticsHome has this interesting post on the process by which Ken Livingstone was selected as Labour’s candidate.

23:40 BBC Middle East Producer, Helena Merriman tweets as the results are imminently revealed:

 

23:33 A tweet from Evening Standard journalist Ross Lydall. The stage is being set for the candidates to appear.

 

23:28 Here’s our interview with UKIP Mayoral candidate Lawrence Webb. The BBC is saying 7 minutes until the count.

 

23:26 The journalists at City Hall are being called down to the count now – it could be ten or fifteen minutes. Then again, we’ve heard that before. Meanwhile, we have interviews with some of the Mayoral candidates coming up.

 

23:10 As news arrives that the count may not arrive until midnight, reporter Hugo Goodridge sends word from City Hall:

We are still awaiting the result for the London Mayoral election. The atmosphere in the room has changed from excitement to frustration to despair amongst the journalists in the room. The frantic marching around the press room and excited phone calls have become languid; however the opportunity for anybody to relax to not possible, while everyone waits for the announcment we have all been waiting for. All journalists have been informed to await a ten minute warning which will signify the moment to move. For my colleagues, myself and the other journalists in the room this cannot come quick enough.

 

23:05 Normal service resumes. Sorry for the delay. The Conservatives are now looking likely to win a crucial 9 assembly seats, allowing Johnson to pass his budgets with more ease than he otherwise might. Amending the Mayor’s budget is the only formal power of the London Assembly, and therefore an important battleground for the next four years.

22:41 The EastLondonLines live blogging team is now operating from the 171 bus, and we are still waiting for the count. Our interviews will have to wait; first, the news we’ve missed:

  • The BBC reports that none of the candidates have achieved the 50% vote necessary to win on first round votes, and that it now depends on people’s second preferences. We erroneously reported that this had happened earlier; apologies.
  • According to London Elects, 13 of the 14 constituencies have returned results. But two batches of votes from Brent and Harrow went to storage without some ballot papers being manually entered (as required when the machines can’t scan them). They’re now being reprocessed.
  • Brian Paddick is in fourth place with 85,964 votes, behind Jenny Jones in third place with 94,183.

 

22:07 It’s 24 hours since polls closed, and we are hearing that another two boxes of uncounted ballots have been discovered and will have to be done by hand. We will have reports and interviews coming in from some of our people at the counts in the next fifteen minutes.

Vote Counting at Alexandra Palace pic: Steven Ren


 

 

 

 

 

 

22:00 According to rumours on Twitter, Livingstone is calling for a recount. But EastLondonLines has spoken to a member of his team, Veronica King, who says that is not true.

 

21:47 An update from our reporter Olga Casablancas:

“The difference between two main candidates running for Mayor of London title is getting smaller. Nervousness is spreading around the whole of London, with its epicentre in City Hall.  People are not sure about the results, but also the way the votes are counted.  Everyone is still waiting for any sign of final results.”

And some tweets to that effect:


21:43 We’ve been marking our posts ’20.xx’ instead of ’21.xx’ for the last forty minutes. Fail.

21:39 London is not the only city to see mayoral action today. EastLondonLines’ Simon Newton says cities across England have been deciding whether they want elected mayors like London – and have, in general, come out against it.

Nine cities in England have rejected proposals to join London in having an elected Mayor. Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield, Wakefield, Coventry, Leeds and Bradford all said ‘no’ to mayors in referendums today.

Only Bristol chose to endorse the idea while Doncaster voted to keep theirs.

Voter turnout was particularly low, in Nottingham and Manchester it was 24 per cent. Prime Minister David Cameron had precviously said “I want a Boris Johnson in every city.”

How they can say no to all this excitement is beyond us.

 

21:36 We’re hearing from a source inside the Ken campaign that they pretty much figure Boris has won by this point. With the second preference votes still being counted, however, there’s all to play for. Except play is over, so that metaphor doesn’t work.

 

21:28 As the waiting game for the Mayoral voting machines continues, experts are offering conflicting views of the likely outcome of the still-pending race. Tony Travers, a local government expert at the London School of Economics, told the BBC that it “still isn’t clear” who will win.

Meanwhile, Michael Thrasher, a psephologist (the science of voting) at the University of Plymouth, told Sky News that it would take “a very spectacular result indeed” for Boris Johnson to lose.

Commentators on the BBC are saying Boris might shift to the right if he takes power – he would be unlikely to win a third term and would have national ambitions as a mainstream Conservative politician.

We are still awaiting results for the London Assembly’s list candidates, elected on a proportional system from across the City. So far it looks like Labour is edging past the Conservatives by a decent margin, with Greens bringing up the rear – but since the vote is proportional, this means that all will probably get some seats.

 

21:10 In most British elections votes are counted by hand, but because of London’s complex election system – which has three different ballots and three voting systems – we do it electronically using machines (video). The machine calculations are then checked by returning officers from both the constituency and the city as a whole.

Unfortunately, this hasn’t quite gone to plan.

 

21:07 The low turnout across London, while not as drastic as the country, is a scandal. We don’t understand it. We told you all to vote! Wasn’t anyone listening to us?!

 

21:06 The result ETA has slipped again to 9:30pm. Tweets from Peter Dominiczak of the Evening Standard at City Hall offer a good overview of the situation now:

 

And this helpful suggestion from Jane Merrick:

 

 

20:46 No sooner have all the results come in for the boroughs we cover than we’ve been informed it may be mere minutes (or up to an hour) until the Mayoral result comes in. In case you’ve forgotten what the issues are, Guardian journalist Paul Owen created this handy animation yesterday, which effectively sums things up.

20:40 Jennette Arnold, who’s just won a crushing victory in the North East constituency, spoke to EastLondonLines’ Alex Bishop:

 

Here’s her acceptance speech:

 

 

Jennette Arnold with other North East constituency candidates. pic: Steven Ren

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

20:38 Our reporter Delores William has been speaking to Pauline Pierce, the ‘Hackney Heroine’ who ran as a Liberal Democrat candidate in Hackney Central today – unsuccessfully, as it transpired.

“Pauline Pearce Libdem candidate is quite philosophical about her failure at the polls, coming in third.

“She said she only put herself up to make things more interesting.  All she cares about is her community, she says, and she appreciates the support of her friends and the people who approach her in the streets of Hackney and ask to kiss her and wish her luck.

“She has no plans to stand as a candidate in the future. What really hurts her the most is the negative comments she has received in the press, She feels that the term ‘Hackney heroine; has been twisted and used against her –  in her own words, “kicking me while I’m down”.  Pierce says she will still fight for her area, and plans to get more involved in community matters.

“She thanked Brian Paddick for his support and says that she liked his views on youth crime in the area and his passion to change things.”

 

20:33 An interesting tweet from Guardian journalist James Ball:

 

20:30 We’ve just had the results in from North East, which includes Hackney, the last undecided EastLondonLines borough:

Jenette Arnold – Labour – 101902
Naomi Newstead – Conservative – 35714
Caroline Allen – Green – 29677
Farooq Qureshi – Lib Dem – 13237
Paul Kevin Wiffen – UKIP – 6623
Ijaz Hayat – Independent –4842

That means the final results for our boroughs are: in North East (Hackney), Labour held their seat, as they did in City and East (Tower Hamlets) and Lewisham and Greenwich. In Croydon, incumbent Steve O’Connell kept his seat too, but his majority – over 40,000 in 2008 – has shrunk to under 10,000 in the face of a strong showing by Labour’s Louisa Woodley, who got 32.98% to O’Connell’s 39.11%.

20:21 Ted Jeory, political editor at the Sunday Express and author of the influential blog, Trial by Jeory, spoke to us about what he thought Labour’s win in Weavers meant:

Labour are hugely relieved to have held it. After a series of losses to Lutfur and having put so much effort in to it, a defeat would have been calamitous.

However, Lutfur will also be fairly chuffed. Abjol Miah stood for Respect but campaigned as a Lutfur independent and did pretty well in a ward they’d normally have little hope in.

The major losers were the Lib Dems. This used to be their ward until two years ago. They were battered.

So where does this leave things? Lutfur will probably want to reshuffle his cabinet to find room for Gulam Robbani. He’s also been courting sole Lib Dem Stephanie Eaton and it would be a huge coup if she accepted a meaningful job.

But some of the Lutfur independents would have to lose out. Some of them might find themselves stabbed in the back.

As for Labour, there’s been some speculation about a challenge to Josh Peck but I haven’t detected any campaigning by or for potential rivals.

But an interesting year ahead, especially if Lutfur’s friend Ken loses.

20:17 The latest figures from the BBC:

JOHNSON – Conservative – 807,065
LIVINGSTONE – Labour – 650,502
JONES – Green – 72,070
PADDICK – Liberal Democrats – 71,543

 

20:12 Latest from the Twitterverse (you can click the links). Independent candidate Siobhan Benita says she’ll run again, but declares it won’t be for Labour.

 

 

 

 

 

20:00 EastLondonLines’  Holly Powell-Jones has this analysis of the results so far:

It’s now neck and neck with the Greater London Assembly seats, with Labour and Conservative securing 6 seats apiece.

Labour maintained their strongholds in Greenwich & Lewisham, City & East, Lambeth & Southwark, and North East – but also snatched 2 seats from the Conservatives: Barnet & Camden and Ealing & Hillingdon

Conservatives kept their seats in West Central, South West, Merton & Wandsworth, Havering & Redbridge, Croydon & Sutton, and Bexley & Bromley.

 

19:45 A selection of Tweets from across the boroughs, served up piping hot. Well, they might be cooling off a little. It’s quite busy here in the EastLondonLines news room.

 

 

 

 

 

19:36 YouGov President Peter Kellner has just spoken to the BBC’s Jon Sopel outside City Hall, telling them: “Boris has won.”

“On the 14 super-constituencies across London, we’ve had the results for 9, and Boris has a clear lead. It’s currently running about four percentage point. Boris is up one percentage point from four years ago, Ken is up three points from four years ago, so the gap has closed by one point…that’s too big a lead for Ken to overturn. It’s a tantalisingly narrow vote, but I think it’s just wide enough with the figures we’ve got to say that Boris has won.”

Sopel asked Kellner why Johnson was running ahead of the Conservatives and yet Livingstone was running behind Labour. Kellner responded:

“There’s a great many Labour voters – perhaps as many of 200,000 who did not vote for Ken. 100,000 voted for Boris and 100,000 . Had Ken held on to those 200,000 Labour voters, he would be on the point of being Mayor tonight.”

The other factor, he says, is simple: “Boris makes Londoners laugh.”

 

19:28 There are three more constituencies to go for the London Assembly: Brent and Harrow, Enfield and Haringey, North East (which includes Hackney).

 

19:23 UKIP’s Annabelle Fuller has told EastLondonLines about the mistake that saw the party’s candidates identified as belonging to the ‘Fresh Choice for London’ party on ballot papers:

“Even though we’ve been polling really succesfully and our message has been polling succesfully, our work has gone to waste and it should never have been allowed to happen. It’s an absolute terrible shame but we know our message definitely is resonating.”

She says the mistake wasn’t noticed until after it was submitted and was too late.

Before we suffered this we were on for two perhaps three seats. There will be a thorough invetigation internally – of course many people put time and money into the campaign and we need to make sure they’re not let down.

 

19:09 Labour gain another GLA seat from the Conservatives, Barnet and Camden. Andrew Dismore won with over 44 per cent of the vote, taking the seat from Tory Brian Coleman, known for his large expenses claims while in City Hall. It is the second seat Labour takes from the Conservatives.

 

19:05 Our reporter Simon Newton tells us:

The BBC’s London political editor Tim Donovan believes the race between Livingstone and Johnson is going to be very close, possibly a few thousand votes. However this still indicates a narrow Johnson victory.

 

19:03 Some of you voting yesterday might have noticed that an unknown party called ‘Fresh Choice for London’ had appropriated the UKIP logo. You might even have wondered why your local UKIP candidate had defected too.

Apparently this is all the fault of incorrectly filled nomination papers. Whoops.

Party leader Nigel Farage told ITV that the mistake probably meant a lot of confused voters had put their X next to another party, believing UKIP was not standing.

“We hope and expected to get two seats, but this has cost us dear. It is a lesson hard learned.”

 

18:56 Our reporter Holly Powell-Jones has some analysis of the results so far:

So far we’ve had 10 of the 25 GLA seats confirmed, with Conservatives holding onto six of their seats and Labour securing four.

The biggest shock result was in Ealing and Hillingdon, where Conservative Richard Barnes lost his seat to Labour’s Onkar Singh Sahota by just over 2 per cent of votes.

In Lambeth and Southwark Val Shawcross secured a re-election with a 16 per cent rise in Labour votes from 2008’s election.

Greenwich and Lewisham also saw an increase in the percentage of Labour votes with Len Duvall securing just under 50 per cent of votes.

But it’s City and East’s John Biggs who’s had the highest percentage of Labour votes so far – securing a re-election with 63 per cent of votes.

So far there’s been a dip in the percentage of Conservative votes, although they have retained their strongholds in Merton and Wandsworth, Havering and Redbridge, Bexley and Bromley, South West, Croydon and Sutton, and West Central.

 

18:53 It’s been a joke for many, but probably a sore spot for UKIP but Twitter has come alive throughout the day with the knowledge that the party made an “admin” mistake. On the ballot paper, they were referred to as “Fresh Choice for London”. Nigel Farage,  said he was “furious” on the BBC earlier today.

 

18:25 The race is closer than we thought. Professor John Curtice of the Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends has just told the BBC:

We cannot rule out the possibility that maybe, maybe, Ken Livingstone will just emerge ahead on the first vote.

Meanwhile, Edd Miliband has responded groan-inducingly to a slightly lackadaisical egging in Southampton.

 

18:07  John Biggs, who just won Labour for City & East, gives a winning speech:

 

17:59 PA are reporting ‘Boris is Ahead’ for London mayor but things aren’t clear cut yet:

“Labour is ahead in the vote for London-wide Assembly candidates followed by the Tories while the Lib Dems are in fourth place behind the Greens.

London Elects’ graphs put Labour ahead in eight of the Assembly’s 14 first-past-the-post constituencies, with Tories on course to take the other six.”

 

17:56 EastLondonLines Erin Tayor at the ExCeL centre with a report on the City and East election.

 

17:52 Of boroughs announced so far it is five for consevatives and four for Labour. Ealing and Hillingdon is a GAIN for Labour, Onkar Singh winning that one.

 

17:46 EastLondonLines’ interview with Tony McNulty, former MP and Minister for London.


 

17:44

John Biggs, Labour, holds City & East borough.

John Biggs pic: Heidi

John Biggs pic: Heidi Gao

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

17:30 The Greater London Assembly members so far are as follows…

4 Conservatives:

Merton and Wandsworth- Richard Tracey

Bexley and Bromley- James Cleverly

Croydon and Sutton- Steve O’Connell

Havering and Redbridge- Roger Evans

3 Labour:

City and East – John Biggs

Greenwich and Lewisham -Len Duvall

Lambeth and Southwark- Val Shawcross

 

17:18 EastLondonLines Alex Bishop has interviewed Labour’s North East candidate Jenette Arnold, who said that whoever wins the race for mayor needs to focus on housing.



17:16 Guardian again, Ken pulled back one point its Johnson 44 per cent Livingston 40 per cent, Paddick 4 per cent, Jenny Jones 5 per cent, Siobahn Benita 4 percent. Comeback?

 

17:09 Big, big win for Labour in City and East, figures to come

 

16:43 Figures for Greenwich & Lewisham courtesy of the Guardian

“Len Duvall* Labour 65,366 (49.61 per cent)

Alex Wilson Conservative 27,329 (20.74 per cent)

Roger Sedgley Green 12,427 (9.43 per cent)

John Russell Liberal Democrat 9,393 (7.13 per cent)

Barbara Raymond People Before Profit 6,873 (5.22 per cent)

Paul Oakley UK Independence Party 4,997 (3.79 per cent)

Roberta Woods British National Party 3,551 (2.70 per cent)

Tess Culnane National Front 1,816 (1.38 per cent)

Turnout: 36.62% (change: -5.66 per cent)

 

16:17 The boroughs are starting to roll in now: Val Shawcross re-elected GLA member in Lambeth & Southwark, estimated 53 per cent share of votes.

 

16:11 Evening Standard journalist Ross Lydall has this as a big swing for Labour

 

16:08 Croydon and Sutton GLA Result: Conservative Hold

 

16:02 We are hearing the City & East results are expected in the next 30 minutes

 

15:45 Labour candidate Len Duvall has taken Greenwich and Lewisham; Croydon and Sutton has been held by conservative candidate Steve C’Connell.

 

15:33 Conservative GLA candidate James Cleverly keeps his seat in Bexley and Bromley.

 

15:31 The Guardian’s James Ball thinks the mayoral vote is going to be closer than expected.

 

15:07 First GLA constituency result is in, its a hold for the Conservatives in Merton & Wandsworth, but with 4.5 per cent swing to Labour.

14:40 Labour is closing the gap as a large influx on Ken votes comes in, but Boris is still out in front.

14.33 Siobhan Benita speaks to David Dimbleby on BBC News and says she’s doing very well and “very close with Brian Paddick and Jenny Jones for 3rd, 4th and 5th.” She vows to stay in London politics after this election.

14.29 The Liberal Democrats’ poor performance has been highlighted in Edinburgh where a man dressed as a penguin has received more votes than their candidate. The independent candidate Professor Pongoo has received more votes than both the Lib Dem and Green Party candidates.

14.20 Jenny Jones and Brian Paddick are neck and neck for third position in the mayoral elections, with the Green Party just ahead.

14.10 It’s worth pointing out that we do have journalists at all the relevant counting centres and they’ll be relaying photos, audio and video as soon as updates start coming through.

14.02 Many news outlets are predicting a win for Boris Johnson. Real-time stats from the count in Lewisham and Greenwich indicate that, though Ken Livingston is ahead, it’s not by very much. These stats, however, represent 1st choice, not 2nd choice distribution.

 

13.52 A power cut at Alexandra Palace has put the predicted results announcment time to 8pm, or possibly even later, as reported by the Independent.

13.10 Stats blog Love The Data have produced this charming graphic showing who among the London Mayoral candidates has been dissing whom.

13.02 A very good afternoon to you all and welcome to the EastLondonLines election live blog. As the results come through for the various votes which took place across the city yesterday we will be telling you what they are.

Reporters: Hugo Goodridge, Alex Bishop, Delores William, Simon Newton, Steven Ren, Erin Taylor, Heidi Gao, Holly Powell-Jones, Olga Casablancas, Steph Davies, George Drake Jr, Laurence Dodds, Raziye Akkoc

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