Announcement of mayoral winner: Boris wins

9.55am: Watch David Cameron leap for joy when it's finally confirmed that Boris has won

9.52am: The earlier editions of the morning papers (as the night wore on some of them became more Boris-centred).  Click on the image to enlarge:

1.22am: Watch Boris Johnson's victory speech

12.46am: ConservativeHome doesn't share Boris Johnson's generous assessment of Ken Livingstone although we respect Boris for being kind in victory.  As Mayor, Ken Livingstone cuddled up to some of the world's most odious dictators - including Chavez and Castro - and also invited Islamic extremists to London - notably Yusuf al-Qaradawi.  He was an embarrassment to London and we are delighted he is no longer the Mayor of our capital city.  Muslim supremacists have lost their greatest western political ally.  Over on the Platform, Paul Goodman MP looks at how Muslim extremists attempted to keep Livingstone in office and how moderate, mainstream Muslims are increasingly playing a role in the Conservative Party.

12.15am: David Cameron's statement:

“Three years ago the idea that the Conservatives would win London and build up a 20 point lead across the county would have been literally unthinkable. London is one of the most diverse, vibrant, successful and important cities in the world- and in Boris Johnson it is now has a Conservative Mayor. Boris ran a serious and energetic campaign and deserves his remarkable victory. Britain is crying out for real change and it is the Conservative party - modernised and united - that is winning the battle of ideas.  We’ve shown there is an alternative. We must now prove it. But I believe that my party – the Conservative Party – is ready to step up for Britain”

12.06am: Mainstream candidates left the stage when BNP's Barnbrook starts to speak.

Midnight: Ken Livingstone makes emotional speech.  Promises to help new administration.  Wins standing ovation.

11.58pm: Boris makes VERY generous tribute to Ken Livingstone and hopes that he will continue to serve London in some way.  Ends speech by saying... Let's get cracking tomorrow and have a drink tonight.

11.50pm: BORIS WINS

11.45pm: Sky reporting that Boris leads 43% to 37% on first preferences.

11.33pm: Due imminently.

Comments

[Chad Noble]

"YouGov were the most accurate"

Yes, they were the least inaccurate.

3 days before the polls Mori etc had a close Ken win, and YouGov had a 11% win for Boris, both were wrong by a similar % though Stephan clearly edges it by calling the right result.

I think this mayoral election was a bad experience for pollsters as a whole though, as election day calls aside, it has shown that polls even just 72 hours before a vote were way off, so polls any further than a few hours before polling really don't give any real predictive indicator of the final result.

Anyway, today is more a day for Conservatives to celebrate than gripe about inaccurate polls, and as sun is burning down here in sw France, we can all enjoy the day! :-)

[michael mcgough]

The London Elects website does not give full details of rejected 2nd preference votes.

[steward's inquiry]

The rejected 1st preference votes at over 40k ,total more than that received by each of six of the candidates ,and more than three of these aggregated.Perhaps in future we need to give instruction in ALL of the 300+ languages in use in London today.

[Charles Tannock MEP]

Congratulations to Mayor Boris and all his hardworking team team and all re-elected and new London AMs. I am particularly delighted that on the top-ups Andrew Boff got in having been my hard working fellow eurocandidate in 1999 and that my old friend Victoria Borwick was elected as otherwise we would have had not a single woman AM having previously had 2, and Angie Bray will be sorely missed in my view.
When canvassing on wednesday in Bromley I could see that the turn-out would be good as there was such interest in the contest. I think this election vindicates DC's view that directly elected powerful Mayors are the way ahead to bring back some vim and vigour to local politics where turnouts had been falling in recent years, and although I know many Tories prefer the figurehead ceremonial Mayor model I think exec Mayors (US and European style) are the future.
The next major elections will be the Europeans so with this kind of result we might conceivably capture a 4th MEP seat for London in June 2009!

[Conservative Homer]

Good job Boris. To be honest i never thought he was in with a chance. But for once the electorate did the right thing and gave ken a kick in the mouth.

[David Sergeant]

"(2) Cameron still hasn't put forward much more than platitudes as a plan for govt. There is no commitment to roll back the state, no coherent philosophy on the constitution, nothing but waffle on the EU."
Posted by: Alex Swanson | May 03, 2008 at 06:31

Oh gawd, even to-night we get this rubbish. Alex Swanson I am envious. I could never afford to live in the middle of the Brazilian jungle without a radio for the last three years.

[Martin Cakebread]

Great result for Boris, he deserves it..

I bet the next leader of labour is a woman

[Jill, London]

Having enjoyed participating in the live blog yesterday afternoon/evening - thank you Sam and friends who kept it running - I haven't congratulated Mayor Johnson on his stunning success - for which we are all extremely grateful. I am an activist in SW London and am delighted that Tony Arbour now enjoys a huge majority. We all played our part, but the biggest thanks must go to Bexley and Bromley for the enormous turnout.

[Philip]

Excellent! Excellent! Wonderful news and good for London!

But do I detect correctly this wasn't the result the BBC wanted? On R4 this morning, a commentator commented how Brian Paddick was asked what his second preference was. Did I hear correctly that the answer was he voted for the Left List candidate as the one closest to his views. (What does this say about the Lib Dems?). But the BBC commentator pondered why Paddick didn’t urge people to vote for Livingstone in their second preferences, suggesting Boris wasn't sufficiently horrible enough (note the apparent BBC expectation that Tories are naturally horrible) for other candidates to recommend voting to keep him out. So it seems the BBC blames Paddick for what could have been for them a result they wouldn’t have preferred.

[Philip]

And I note the mainstream candidates understandably left the platform when the BNP candidate started to speak. But what was their attitude to the Green candidate? A Green spokesperson recently urged a Chinese-style policy of restrictions on the number of children families can have (non-coercive of course – but I ask where do you draw the line and how long would it take for such a policy to become coercive?), for the sake of the environment presumably. Such an odious idea must be at least as bad and oppressive as the BNP. But of course the end justifies the means: if an otherwise evil policy is pursued for the sake of the environment, to tackle 3rd world starvation or other good reasons, or even trendy causes (equality, no-restraints liberalism…) then that policy becomes good.

[John Moss]

If you want to truly wind up any passing socialist - assuming you can find one - point out that the combined vote of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Bethnall Green and the Bethnall Green Popular Front - otherwise known as Respect, George Galloway and the Left List, would have been sufficient to win them the last Assembly top-up seat and keep out the BNP.

[Graham D'Amiral]

A few people have mentioned the Bexley & Bromley result and having been responsible for organising the campaign in Old Bexley & Sidcup it was heartening to see the many months of hard work result in such a stunning victory. Boris polled an incredible 60% of the vote in Bexley & Bromley that compares with 37% that Steve Norris got in 2004.

I was delighted to see James Cleverly win so well too with a majority of over 75,000 and to put the icing on the cake Gareth Bacon a Bexley Councillor was one of our top ups on the assembly.