The 2016 London mayoral election was held on 5 May 2016 to elect the Mayor of London, on the same day as the London Assembly election. It was the fifth election to the position of mayor, which was created in 2000 following a referendum in Greater London. The election used a supplementary vote system.
The election was won by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting, Sadiq Khan, a member of the Labour Party, who polled 56.8% of the votes in the head-to-head second round of voting over the MP for Richmond Park, Zac Goldsmith, a member of the Conservative Party. Goldsmith was more than 25% ahead of the next candidate in the first round of voting, as part of a record field of twelve candidates. Of the twelve candidates only Khan, Goldsmith, and Green Party candidate Siân Berry achieved the requisite 5% minimum first round vote share to retain their deposit.
This was the first election to not feature either of the two previous holders of the office, Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson, who had run against each other in 2008 and 2012. Johnson, as incumbent mayor, had chosen not to stand for re-election for a third term in office, having been elected as the Conservative Party MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip at the 2015 general election. The campaign was dominated by the personal battle between Goldsmith and Khan, and their contrasting class and ethnic backgrounds. Through his victory, Khan became the second Labour Party mayor of London after Livingstone, and the first Muslim mayor of a European Union capital city.
The campaign of Goldsmith was marred by accusations of Islamophobia. Senior Muslim figures within the Conservative Party supported the accusations while the Muslim Council of Britain described Goldsmith's campaign as an example of Tory "dog whistle anti-Muslim racism" and called the party to investigate Goldsmith as part of an investigation into alleged Islamophobia in the Conservative party.
Results
The first announcement of the first round results indicated that Khan was leading. However, this count was later retracted, and official results were delayed pending counting errors that reportedly misattributed "hundreds" of votes. When the full result, including second preference, votes was announced at about 00:30, Khan had increased his lead over Goldsmith.
There were a total of 2,596,961 valid votes and 49,871 rejected votes in the first round, a turnout of 45.3%. In the second round a further 381,862 had not declared a valid second preference, with a further 2,381 rejected for other reasons.
Background
The position of mayor of London was created in 2000 after a referendum in London. The mayor has a range of responsibilities covering policing, transport, housing, planning, economic development, arts, culture and the environment, controlling a budget of around £17 billion per year. Mayors are elected for a period of four years, with no limit to the number of terms served.
Prior to the 2016 election, there had been two mayors since the position's creation. The outgoing mayor, Boris Johnson of the Conservative Party was elected mayor in 2008, defeating incumbent Labour Party mayor Ken Livingstone. Johnson was re-elected, again ahead of Livingstone, in the 2012 election. Neither Livingstone nor Johnson stood in 2016, making it the first London mayoral election that Livingstone did not contest, and the first time a mayor had chosen not to defend their position.
Since the previous mayoral vote, Labour had taken the majority of London votes and seats at the 2015 General Election, despite the Conservative Party winning the vote nationally. Ten further candidates contested the election; of these the UK Independence Party (UKIP) (8.1%), the Liberal Democrats (7.7%, 1 seat) and the Green Party (4.7%) had been the most popular parties in London at the 2015 election.
Electoral system
The election used a supplementary vote system, in which voters express a first and a second preference of candidates. If a candidate receives over 50% of the first preference vote the candidate wins. If no candidate receives an overall majority, i.e., over 50% of first preference votes, the top two candidates proceed to a second round and all other candidates are eliminated. The first preference votes for the remaining two candidates stand in the final count. Voters' ballots whose first and second preference candidates are eliminated are discarded. Voters whose first preference candidates have been eliminated and whose second preference candidate is in the top two have their second preference votes added to the count. This means that the winning candidate has the support of a majority of voters who expressed a preference among the top two.