Greenwich and Lewisham winner Len Duvall said a Labour Mayor would be ‘more honest than Boris’ after completing a landslide victory today.
The fifth-time winner, first elected to the GLA in 2000, beat Conservative Adam Thomas by more than 54,000 votes.
The chair of the Greater London Labour Party scored 85,735 of the votes, with the Green Party and UKIP trailing behind in third and fourth.
“A Labour mayor is going to be a bit more honest than Boris on some of the problems we face but more importantly, deliver on some of the issues that we’ve got,” Mr Duvall said.
“Sadiq has got a lot of work to do and he needs to get on and do that.”
Born and raised in Woolwich, Mr Duvall has vast experience working for the party, starting his career in 1990 as deputy leader of Greenwich Council and becoming leader two years later.
Since then he has been a member of the Council of Europe and Chamber of the Regions and was the chair of the Commonwealth Local Government Forum from 1998 to 2005.
In 1998 he was the proud recipient of an OBE for his contribution to London Local Government.
“You cannot just be a Labour capital city in some senses and we’ve got to appeal across all the country. There are some important messages to learn from these results,” he said.
“Labour is at its best when it appeals to everybody.”
Tomorrow he will start this year’s duties as an Assembly Member and is looking forward to helping Labour connect across the whole of London.
“We represent all parts of London, inner and outer, we always have, and we need to make sure we keep in contact and that we keep making sure that we’re in tune and in touch with who voters are,” he said.
“Increasingly I think Tories are out of step and I think this campaign shows just that.”
