But Conservatives win more than a third of seats, critical in budget decisions
BORIS Johnson vowed to fight for a good deal for Londoners after securing his re-election as the capital’s mayor – but he’s also in for a fight with his colleagues in the London Assembly.
Every year the mayor’s biggest battle is to gain approval for his budget, with the constitution of the assembly allowing two-thirds of the 25-strong chamber to block his spending plans.
That means that Johnson and his Conservative colleagues, who lost two constituencies – Barnet and Camden and Ealing and Hillingdon – are looking dangerously exposed with nine seats.
Ken Livingstone, Labour’s mayoral candidate, may have been beaten but his colleagues on the capital’s ballot papers had a much better day.
They picked up four seats overall to move to 12 while the Greens, who finished third in the popular vote, and the Liberal Democrats will have two seats each.
Labour secured four seats, up two, in the London-wide poll, in which voters select a party and candidates from a list are elected proportional to the votes cast for that party.
Nicky Gavron, Nurad Quireshi, Fiona Twycross and Tom Copley will now represent Labour while Andrew Boff, Gareth Bacon, Victoria Borick will join the six Conservative members elected in the constituency elections.
Jenny Jones, who came third in the race for mayor, will lead the Greens in the assembly alongside Darren Johnson while the Liberal Democrats drop from three to two seats – Caroline Pidgeon and Stephen Knight their representatives for the next four years.
Jones says a majority of progressive parties in the assembly will hold Boris to account
“Boris’ policies mean that London are no longer world leader on climate change,” she said.
“London is going to be a mess when he’s finished with it.”
Green Party press officer Joe Williams said: “Our messages are resonating more and more. People are coming round to our way of thinking.”
Shadow Minister for London Tessa Jowell said: “I think that London is a better city, I think it’s a different city because of Ken Livingstone and I think ken leaves an elected officer of London with an enormous amount to be proud of.
“He has done a lot for Londoners to be grateful to him for.”
