London keeps maverick mayor

2004-06-12 20:10

London - Ken Livingstone, running under the banner of Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour party, won re-election on Friday as mayor of London, election officials declared.

"I am delighted to have delivered a Labour victory," said Livingstone at London's city hall after his victory over Conservative rival Steve Norris and eight other candidates was announced.

His win gave Blair a welcome reason to cheer, after results of local council elections on Thursday in other parts of England and Wales showed Labour trailing the Tories and Liberal Democrats.

With none of the candidates getting a majority in the first counting of ballots, a second count was held taking into account voters' second preferences.

The final result saw Livingstone with 828 380 votes, and Norris 667 178.

Thursday's election was held in tandem with polls for Britain's members of the European Parliament. Those results will come out on Sunday.

Too much of a radical

Livingstone won his first term as mayor in May 2000, but as an independent after he was booted out of Labour ranks by Blair, who felt he was too much of a radical.

Having implemented a number of successful policies, including a high-tech levy on cars in central London, Blair earlier this year brought him back into the Labour fold.

He did so despite Livingstone's outspoken opposition to the Iraq war.

In his victory remarks, the mayor, who turns 59 next week, said it had been "logical and honest" for him to rejoin the party, despite the disappointment it caused to the anti-war camp.

But he said the result showed that there was no room for complacency.

"Steve posed more of a threat than I would have liked," he said, referring to Norris who emerged as a strong 11th-hour threat.

"A good wake-up call to everybody that the election mattered and demonstrably showing that rumours of the death of the Conservative party have been rather overplayed."

- AFP