The North East constituency of which Islington is part helped return a Labour mayor and re-elected a Labour member to the Greater London Assembly reports Mark Brown and Noah Vickers, Local Democracy Reporter.
Labour’s Sadiq Khan won a convincing victory in Thursday 2nd of May’s Mayoral Election, while the London Assembly constituency of which Islington is a part also re-elected Labour’s Sem Moema to represent the area on the Assembly.
An expected anti-ULEZ vote did not appear to significantly influence voting across London.
Who was elected to the Greater London Assembly in Friday’s election for Islington?
Islington is part of the North East Constituency which also comprises Waltham Forest and Hackney.
Sem Moema, Labour Party, was re-elected Assembly Member for the North East Constituency with 104,088 votes. 44,342 people cast their votes for Antoinette Fernandez of the Green Party, with Pearce Branigan of the Conservatives coming in third with 27,769 votes.
In the North East constituency, 105,270 people cast their votes for Labour in the London-wide assembly member poll, 39,046 for The Green Party and 26,162 for The Conservatives.
Overall, of 25 London Assembly seats Labour now holds 11, the Conservative Party 8, the Green Party 3, the Liberal Democrats 2 and Reform UK 1.
Who won the mayoral election in London?
In the North East constituency, of which Islington is part, 127,455 cast their vote for Labour’s Sadiq Khan in the Mayoral ballot. 34,099 cast their vote for Conservative candidate Susan Hall.
Overall, Labour mayor Sadiq Khan won a third term as Mayor with 43.8 per cent of the vote, while Tory candidate Susan Hall came second with 32.7 per cent.
In his victory speech, the mayor did not pay tribute to Ms Hall or thank her in any way.
He did say however: “We faced a campaign of non-stop negativity. But I couldn’t be more proud that we answered fear-mongering with facts, hate with hope and attempts to divide with efforts to unite.”
He suggested that the Tory campaign consisted of “right-hard-wing populism”.
Ms Hall could be seen shaking her head as Mr Khan promised to “always be a mayor for all Londoners”.
In her concession speech, Ms Hall congratulated the mayor on his victory, before saying that she hopes he will make tackling crime his “top priority”.
“He owes it to the families of those thousand people who have lost [their] lives to knife crime, under his mayoralty,” she said.
She added: “I will continue to hold Sadiq to account, to stand up for hard-working families, for motorists and for women.
“I love London, and I urge Sadiq to try harder to make it better, for all our sakes.”
An Anti-ULEZ bounce didn’t happen across London
Environmental campaigners Greenpeace say Sadiq Khan’s reelection for a third term as Mayor of London shows that taking on climate change is a winner.
The mayor secured victory with an increased majority after Conservative opponent Susan Hall after she pledged to reverse the controversial expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) and delay moves towards net zero.
Commenting on the result, Mel Evans, head of climate at Greenpeace UK said: “Sadiq Khan’s win with an even bigger majority confirms the clear message from this election: bold climate and environmental action is a vote winner. Anti-green populism has largely backfired at the ballot box.
“Many of the local and mayoral candidates that stood on bold green policy platforms won resounding victories. The people of London, Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool and the North East, all elected mayors and councillors who have committed to boosting public transport, delivering green growth and cutting emissions. As Labour continues its resurgence to power, the gains made in these local elections demonstrate, once again, that the British public overwhelmingly support climate action.
“This weekend’s results are yet more evidence that Sunak’s failure on climate, his pursuit of more oil and gas, and attempts to make net zero a culture war issue have failed miserably. Susan Hall pitched an anti-green agenda to Londoners, and she failed to win them over, but Sadiq Khan’s commitment to clean air and climate action won their support.
“There is one clear takeaway for all parties from this last litmus test of voter opinion before the general election: green policies and bold climate action are a resounding vote winner.”
What was the turnout in the London election for Mayor and London Assembly?
In the North East constituency of which Islington is a part, a total of 524,885 people were eligible to vote, of which 207,722 cast their ballot on Thursday May 2nd. The turnout was 39.57 per cent.
A total of 40.5 per cent of eligible voters cast their ballots in the London mayoral election. The figure is down slightly from the 42 per cent of Londoners who voted in the last contest in 2021.
Since the mayoralty’s creation in 2000, overall turnouts for City Hall elections have averaged at about 40 per cent.
Historically, the highest turnouts in London mayoral contests have been in the ‘change’ elections of 2008 and 2016 – when Tory mayor Boris Johnson and Labour mayor Sadiq Khan each seized their first victories, respectively. But even in those contests, fewer than half of eligible Londoners actually voted, as only 45 per cent turned out in each.
At the other end of the scale, the lowest turnout recorded was in the mayoralty’s first election in 2000, back when Londoners were unused to the idea of having a directly-elected mayor. Just over a third of those eligible – 34 per cent – cast their ballots.
Which London mayors achieved the best and worst results?
The best ever result for a winning candidate in terms of vote-share was achieved by Mr Khan in 2016, when he secured his first term as mayor with 44.2 per cent of ‘first preference’ votes, under the old ‘supplementary vote’ system.
For this year’s City Hall election and others going forward, the voting system has been changed to ‘first past the post’, meaning that voters are no longer able to choose a first and second preference for mayor. The winning candidate now simply has to receive more votes than any other.
The lowest win, by vote-share, was that of Labour’s Ken Livingstone when he won re-election in 2004, with 37 per cent of first preferences. This was down from the 39 per cent he received when running as an independent in 2000.
In that earlier contest – the capital’s first mayoral election – Mr Livingstone achieved the largest margin of victory by a London mayor over their nearest opponent, defeating Tory candidate Steven Norris by 11.9 percentage points.
