2008 London mayoral election

2008 London mayoral election
1 May 2008
Turnout45.3% 8.38 pp
 
Candidate Boris Johnson Ken Livingstone Brian Paddick
Party Conservative Labour Liberal Democrats
First Round 1,043,761 893,887 235,585
Percentage 43.2% 37.0% 9.8%
Swing 14.0pp 5.6pp
Second Round 1,168,738 1,027,976 Eliminated
Percentage 53.2% 46.8% Eliminated
Swing 8.6pp 8.6pp

First preference votes by London borough. Blue boroughs are those with most first preference votes for Boris Johnson and red those for Ken Livingstone

Mayor before election

Ken Livingstone
Labour

Elected mayor

Boris Johnson
Conservative

The 2008 London mayoral election for the office of Mayor of London, England, was held on 1 May 2008. Conservative candidate Boris Johnson defeated incumbent Labour Mayor Ken Livingstone. It was the third London mayoral election, the previous elections being the first election in May 2000 and the second election in June 2004.

Johnson became the second Mayor of London and the first Conservative to hold the office since its creation in 2000. This became the first London Mayoral election in which the incumbent mayor was defeated by a challenger. The popular vote achieved by Johnson remained the largest polled by winning mayoral candidate until Labour candidate Sadiq Khan received 1,148,716 first-preference votes in 2016. The result was the first time that the Conservatives had won control of London-wide government since 1977.