The Mayor of London is the directly elected executive head of the Greater London Authority (GLA), responsible for the strategic government of the capital. The role was created in 2000 under the Greater London Authority Act 1999 to provide London with a unified, democratically accountable leader – for the first time since the abolition of the Greater London Council in 1986.
The mayor is responsible for a multi-billion pound budget and for setting the strategic direction for transport, policing, planning and environmental policy across all 32 London boroughs.
The London mayor has the largest personal mandate of any UK politician, with a constituency of around 6 million voters. The current mayor of London is Labour’s Sadiq Khan, who is serving his third term.
London mayor: powers and responsibilities
The mayor’s powers are focused on strategic issues that cross borough boundaries and affect London as a whole.
The mayor is responsible for Transport for London (TfL), the body that runs the capital’s public transport network, including the Tube, buses, trams and Overground services. The mayor sets fares and oversees major transport infrastructure projects.
The mayor sets the strategic direction and budget for the Metropolitan Police Service through the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (Mopac). This includes publishing a police and crime plan.
The mayor writes the so-called London plan, a statutory spatial development strategy that all London boroughs must comply with in their local planning decisions. The mayor also has the power to approve or reject major strategic planning applications.
The mayor has a duty to create strategies to tackle air pollution and climate change. This mandate informed the introduction and expansion of the ultra low emission zone or ULEZ.
The mayor also has a number of duties in relation to culture and tourism including responsibility for Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square.
The Greater London Authority (GLA)
The Mayor of London is the executive arm of the Greater London Authority.
The London Assembly is a 25-member body that holds the mayor to account. It does not have legislative power but conducts scrutiny through investigations, questioning the mayor, and public consultations.
The assembly has the power to alter the mayor’s annual budget if a two-thirds majority agrees. It can also reject the mayor’s statutory strategies.
The 25 London assembly members are elected using the additional member system (AMS). Fourteen are elected from constituencies on a first past the post (FPTP) basis, and eleven are London-wide members elected via a proportional party list system. Voters use two ballot papers, putting an X next to a constituency candidate, and an X for their party of choice for the London-wide list.
The headquarters of the mayor of London and the London Assembly is City Hall, located in the Royal Docks in the London Borough of Newham. The GLA relocated to this building from its previous home near Tower Bridge in 2022.
Mayoral elections
Elections for the mayor of London are held every four years.
In the May 2024 election, Sadiq Khan won with 1,088,225 votes (43.8%), defeating Conservative candidate Susan Hall (32.7%).
Under the Elections Act 2022, the mayor of London is elected using the first past the post system. Voters cast a single vote for their preferred candidate, and the candidate with the most votes wins.
This replaced the previous supplementary vote (SV) system. Under this system, voters expressed a first and second preference from a list of candidates. If a candidate received more than 50% of the first preference votes, they are elected. If not, all but the top two candidates were eliminated, and the second-preference votes of the eliminated candidates were redistributed to the top two. The candidate with the most votes at the end of this process won.
The Labour government has brought forward legislation to re-introduce the supplementary vote for mayoral elections.
How much is the mayor of London paid?
The salary for the mayor of London is £170,282 per annum.
The salary of a standard assembly member is £66,390 per year.
The deputy mayor receives £118,124 and the chair of the assembly receive £79,617
Previous mayors of London
- Ken Livingstone: 2000 – 2008 (Initially as an independent, then Labour)
- Boris Johnson: 2008 – 2016 (Conservative)
- Sadiq Khan: 2016 – Present (Labour)
The lord mayor of London
The role of the mayor of London is distinct from the ancient office of the lord mayor of the City of London.
The lord mayor is the apolitical head of the City of London Corporation, which governs the historic “square mile” of the City of London. The role is largely ceremonial and ambassadorial; the lord mayor serves for a term of just one year.
The City of London Corporation performs many of the same functions as the 32 London boroughs, but its constitution rests on ancient rights and charters, some predating the Norman Conquest. It is unique among UK councils in giving votes to businesses as well as residents, having its own police force and an elected lord mayor.
Controversies and politics of the London mayoralty
Ken Livingstone’s controversies and clashes
Ken Livingstone’s successful bid for the London mayoralty was shaped largely by the controversy surrounding Labour’s internal selection process. Livingstone, a prominent figure on the party’s left and the former leader of the GLC, was a popular choice among party members but was distrusted by the New Labour leadership. Blair described Livingstone, a left-wing firebrand, as one of the Labour politicians who “almost knocked [the party] over the edge of the cliff into extinction” during the 1980s.
Blair said: “My problem with [Livingstone] is that while I was growing up in the Labour Party and he and Arthur Scargill and Tony Benn were in control of the Labour Party they almost knocked it over the edge of the cliff into extinction. It became unelectable.
“If that is the politics he still represents then… I am going to have to go out and fight for the Labour Party I believe in.”
Livingstone’s profile and political history conspicuously conflicted with Blair’s programme of ‘modernisation’. “Red Ken”, as he was known, was Old Labour to the core.
Livingstone was no stranger to taking on prime ministers. He infuriated Margaret Thatcher as leader of the GLC, eventually moving her to abolish the authority in 1986.
For the internal Labour contest, an electoral college was constructed – whereby a third of the votes would come from the rank-and-file members, a third from the trades unions, and a third from MPs and MEPs.
Livingstone, as predicted, won the vote among Labour members. But Dobson’s landslide victory among MPs and MEPs pushed his candidacy over the line. With the votes weighted by the electoral college, Dobson won by 51.53% to 48.47%. Livingstone referred to the result and Dobson as “tainted”.
On 6 March 2000, the maverick politician declared he would stand as an independent in the May contest. “I have been forced to choose between the party I love and upholding the democratic rights of Londoners”, he said.
Reacting to the election result, Blair said his view expressed in 1999 that Livingstone would be a “disaster” for London had not changed.
Livingstone was a prominent opponent of the Iraq War. In February 2003, he addressed what is believed to be the largest political demonstration in British history, when over one million people marched through central London to protest against the prospect of a war with Iraq
In January 2004, ahead of London’s second mayoral election, Livingstone was allowed back into the Labour Party. Blair admitted his prediction of a Livingstone-led “disaster” had been misjudged.
Livingstone’s invitation to the Muslim cleric Yusuf Al-Qaradwi to visit London was widely criticised. Al-Qaradwi was accused of being antisemitic, homophobic and of condoning suicide bombings.
Livingstone’s comments likening a journalist to a concentration camp guard earned him a four-week suspension from office. However, this was subsequently overturned.
Controversies during Boris Johnson’s tenure as London mayor
During his tenure as mayor of London, Boris Johnson attracted criticism over transparency and a series of perceived vanity projects.
The Garden Bridge scheme was ultimately abandoned after £43 million of public funds had been spent.
Johnson’s purchase of second-hand water cannons – later prohibited from use by the home secretary – was also subjected to criticism. Johnson bought and refurbished three second-hand Ziegler Wasserwerfer 9000s from Germany for £322,000. They were sold for scrap in 2018 for just £11,025 – a loss of over £300,000.
In February 2016, Johnson, who was coming to the end of his second term as mayor of London, announced that he would campaign for Britain to leave the European Union (EU). The decision marked a severe blow to David Cameron, the prime minister, who was leading the effort to keep the UK in the EU.
Johnson soon assumed the position as de facto leader of the Leave campaign. Announcing his decision outside his home in London, Johnson said that “after a huge amount of heartache” he had concluded that the EU was “in danger of getting out of proper democratic control”.
He told reporters: “I will be advocating Vote Leave, or whatever the team is called – I understand there are many of them – I think that is basically, because I want a better deal for the people of this country, to save them money, and to take back control. That’s really I think what this is all about.”
Controversies and notable clashes under Sadiq Khan
On 21 June 2016, just two days before the Brexit referendum vote, Boris Johnson clashed with his successor as mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, in a television debate.
Khan accused Johnson of unleashing “project hate” and peddling falsehoods, particularly over the prospect of Turkey joining the EU – which the London mayor referred to as a “big fat lie”.
He said immigration brought “huge economic, cultural and social benefits to our country”. Johnson, meanwhile, called the EU a “job destroying engine”.
In March 2019, Khan was one of the speakers at a central London demonstration attended by an estimated one million people calling for a second Brexit referendum. Khan adopted a significantly more pro-Remain stance than Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership.
The most notable policy controversy of Khan’s mayoralty has been the ultra low emission zone. The policy, designed to improve air quality, generated a notable political backlash, particularly in outer London. In May 2024, it was reported that more than 4,500 Ulez cameras had been vandalised as a form of protest since the expansion.
The policy was widely blamed for Labour’s defeat in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election, which was triggered by Johnson’s resignation as an MP.
This prompted Keir Starmer, the Labour leader of the opposition, to distance himself from the scheme. Starmer said Ulez was “the reason we didn’t win” in Uxbridge, saying “we’ve all got to reflect on that, including the mayor”.
In February 2024, Lee Anderson, the MP for Ashfield, had the Conservative whip suspended for refusing to apologise for comments made about Khan. Anderson claimed that “Islamists” had “got control” of the mayor.
Reacting to the comments, prior to Anderson’s suspension, Khan said: “These comments from a senior Conservative are Islamophobic, are anti-Muslim and are racist.”
History of London government
The City of London’s distinct status dates back to the time of Alfred the Great, while the Corporation of London dates back to 1132, during the reign of Henry I.
Today’s London boroughs date back only to 1965. The London Government Act 1963 provided for the abolition of the former counties of Middlesex and London, the absorption of parts of Kent, Essex and Surrey, and their replacement with the county of Greater London.
This was to be administered by a “two-tier” local government system, comprising the Greater London Council (GLC), and the 32 borough councils and the City, which had previously remained separate. The new boroughs were formed out of a mixture of inner London metropolitan boroughs, municipal boroughs and urban districts in outer London, and three county boroughs, Croydon, West Ham and East Ham. Elections to the “shadow” boroughs and GLC were held in 1964, and the new organisations began work in 1965.
This system survived the local government upheavals of 1974, which aimed to install a uniformly two-tier model across the rest of the country, only to be replaced in 1986.
The old London county council had been dominated by Labour, based as it was on the more left-leaning inner London area. The new GLC had a more balanced political profile, in part due to the addition of many wealthy suburban areas. Control passed from Labour to the Conservatives and back again throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
In the 1970s, a left-wing faction began to coalesce within the London Labour party, which denounced the party’s 1979 election manifesto. Labour lost the election, and power passed to the strongly Thatcherite administration led by Sir Horace Cutler who in turn moved to cut public spending and encourage those living in council houses to buy their own homes.
Labour was re-elected in 1981 with a small majority. A day after the election, the left succeeded in ousting the moderate Labour leader Andrew McIntosh, replacing him with Ken Livingstone. Under Livingstone, the GLC embarked upon a strongly left-wing programme, earning its leader the nickname “Red Ken”.
In 1983, the Conservative government proposed abolishing the GLC in the white paper Streamlining the Cities. The government was under pressure from Outer London Conservatives to free them from the “tax high, spend high” council, and was keen to be rid of the GLC for ideological reasons. The GLC – along with the metropolitan counties – was abolished under the Local Government Act 1985, formally on the grounds of inefficiency, and ceased to operate on March 31st 1986.
The act passed most of the powers of the GLC to the boroughs (and the remainder were taken back by the government), although the Inner London Education Authority survived as an independent body until 1988 (the Outer London Boroughs became the Local Education Authorities for their areas). The GLC’s assets were disposed of by the London Residuary Body, which survived until 1996.
London was thus governed by a single tier of local government from 1986 until the establishment of the Greater London Authority in 2000.
Labour came to power in 1997 on a platform of devolving power to Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the English regions and London. A referendum was held in 1998 on proposals for the establishment of a new strategic authority headed by a directly-elected Mayor – a concept Labour was at that time keen to promote across the country. The result was 1,230,715 in favour to 478,413 against (72% to 28%), and with this mandate, the government proceeded to pass the Greater London Authority Act 1999.
The limitations of the single-tier model for London government were said to be evident soon after the abolition of the GLC. The boroughs were thought to lack the strategic vision and mandate to co-ordinate their work on London-wide issues, such as transport, strategic planning and economic development, despite the efforts of bodies like the Association of London Government.
The early 1990s saw the government respond to this by the establishment of a transport minister for London, a cabinet sub-committee for London and in 1994, a regional Government Office for London, but it was widely argued that London had a need, and a right, to govern itself.
However, many supporters of London government regarded the new body created in 2000 as a let-down. It was considerably weaker than the GLC, despite having a number of powers (notably in relation to the Metropolitan Police) that its predecessor lacked. The mayor would not be able to vary tax, and there were wide areas in the act in which the mayor would be unable to act without the approval of the secretary of state.
In May 2000, Ken Livingstone was elected as the first mayor, in spite of Labour’s refusal to accept him as its candidate. He was re-elected in June 2004, having been re-admitted to Labour in the run-up to the election.
The Conservative, Boris Johnson, was elected mayor in the 2008 election and again for a second term in 2012 when he hosted the Olympics. In 2016, the Labour MP, Sadiq Khan was elected London mayor.
In 2022, the Greater London Authority relocated its headquarters. It moved from the distinctive City Hall building near Tower Bridge to a new home at The Crystal, a building in the Royal Docks in East London. The move was initiated as a cost-saving measure.
Khan was re-elected for a third term as mayor of London in the election held on 2 May 2024. The election was the first to use the first past the post voting system for the mayoralty, replacing the previous supplementary vote (SV) system.
Quotes
“As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted 14 years ago… I want an all-embracing administration that will speak with one voice on behalf of London. I hope after reflection my fellow candidates will want to help me in that work and hope they will join me in that administration. I believe in regional government. The government that is best is the government that is best for the people. I pledge to heal the division between myself and the Labour party and I hope the Blair government is elected for a second term.” – Ken Livingstone, speaking upon his election as mayor of London in May 2000
“We have a new team ready to go in to City Hall. Where there have been mistakes we will rectify them. Where there are achievements we will build on them. Where there are neglected opportunities we will seize on them, and we will focus on the priorities of the people of London: cutting crime, improving transport, protecting green space, delivering affordable housing, giving taxpayers value for money in every one of the 32 boroughs. And I hope that everybody who loves this city will put aside party differences to try in the making of Greater London greater still. Let’s get cracking tomorrow and let’s have a drink tonight.” – Boris Johnson, speaking upon his election as mayor of London in May 2008
“Londoners said no to division, no to hate and yes once again to diversity, unity and hope. London is now a beacon – not just for climate action, but for openness, inclusion and equality across the world. Indeed, the reason London shines so bright today is because our story is one written by people of all faiths, all nationalities and all backgrounds. People who may be able to trace their roots and family history elsewhere, to different corners of the globe. But who have in common their shared identity and experiences as Londoners. London is special – a city of progress, pluralism and endless possibility.” – Sadiq Khan, speaking upon his election as mayor of London in May 2024
Additional resources Information
- The Mayor of London & London Assembly: https://www.london.gov.uk/
- The Mayor of London & London Assembly: – The Mayor and his team: https://www.london.gov.uk/who-we-are/what-mayor-does/mayor-and-his-team
