First preference votes by London Assembly constituency. Blue constituencies are those with most first preference votes for
Steven Norris and grey those for
Ken Livingstone
The 2000 London mayoral election was held on 4 May 2000 to elect the
Mayor of London. It was the first election to the office established that year; the idea of a London mayor of a
Greater London Authority (GLA) had been included in Labour's
1997 election manifesto, and after their election
a referendum in London was scheduled for May 1998, in which there was a 72% yes vote with a 34% turnout.[1][2][3]
Electoral system
The election used a
supplementary vote system, in which voters express a first and a second preference for candidates.[4]
If a candidate receives more than 50% of the first preference vote, that candidate wins
If no candidate receives more than 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 have both been eliminated are discarded
Voters whose first preference candidates have been eliminated and whose second preference candidate is one of the top two have their second preference votes added to that candidate's count
This means that the winning candidate has the support of a majority of voters who expressed a preference among the top two.[5]
As the ballot papers are counted electronically, totals for all second preferences are available, even though some did not contribute to the final result.
Candidates
Geoffrey Ben-Nathan stood as a PRO-MaSS (Pro-motorist and Small Shop) candidate, campaigning on a platform of stopping the use of motorists as "wallets on wheels".[7]
Ashwinkumar Tanna, who had been a candidate for UKIP in the
2000 Tottenham by-election, ran on an independent ticket with a range of policies including opposing privatisation of
London Underground, local involvement in policing and the establishment of a citywide business forum.[14]
With the first mayoral election scheduled for May 2000,
Ken Livingstone stated his intention to stand as a potential Labour candidate for the position in March 1998.[1]Tony Blair did not want Livingstone as London Mayor, claiming the latter was one of those who "almost knocked [the party] over the edge of the cliff into extinction" during the 1980s.[1][2] He and the Labour
spin doctors organised a campaign against Livingstone to ensure that he was not selected, with Campbell and
Sally Morgan unsuccessfully attempting to get
Oona King to denounce Livingstone.[1] They failed to convince
Mo Mowlam to stand for the mayorship, and instead encouraged the reluctant
Frank Dobson to stand.[1] Recognising that a '
one member, one vote' election within the London Labour Party would probably see Livingstone selected over Dobson, Blair ensured that a third of the votes would come from the rank-and-file members, a third from the
trades unions, and a third from Labour MPs and
MEPs, the latter two of which he could pressure into voting for his own preferred candidate, something that Dobson was deeply uncomfortable with.[1][3]
Information on the Blairite campaign against Livingstone became public, costing Dobson much support; nevertheless, while Livingstone won amongst party members (60% to Dobson's 40%) and among affiliated unions (72% to Dobson's 28%, a more than 2:1 vote), Dobson's landslide victory (173:27 in ratio) amongst MPs, MEPS and GLA candidates saw him win narrowly overall: forming a simple electoral college outcome of 51.5% to 48.5%.[1][3][15] Livingstone proclaimed Dobson to be "a tainted candidate" and stated his intention to run for the Mayoralty as an independent candidate. Aware that this would result in his expulsion from Labour, he publicly stated that "I have been forced to choose between the party I love and upholding the democratic rights of Londoners."[1]
Steve Norris had lost the original selection ballot for Conservative candidate to
Jeffrey Archer, but Archer stood down as a candidate when a newspaper printed a story accusing him of committing
perjury during a 1987
libel trial [16](he was later convicted and imprisoned).[17]