please empty your brain below
What would have happened to your ballot if you’d have given the same person both your first and second choice votes?

dg writes: 2nd choice would have been ignored. 10% of voters did this.

Geofftech | 09.05.21 - 7:52 a.m. | #

Have seen some discussion on Twitter that the reason for 3.5% of the electorate voting too many times was due to the double columns on the mayoral ballot, compared to previous single column formats.

And while I like the supplementary vote system, it does seem to cause confusion amongst a portion of voters.

TomH | 09.05.21 - 7:55 a.m. | #

Thanks for this - the clearest and most succinct summary I have seen of the results..

Liz | 09.05.21 - 8:04 a.m. | #

Which was the most Libby-Demmy cosntituency?

dg writes: yours, by miles
(added, thanks)

timbo | 09.05.21 - 8:14 a.m. | #

Thanks for this. Clear, and rather depressing.

Malcolm of Kent | 09.05.21 - 8:30 a.m. | #

It ended up closer than many thought. Khan's victory margin was down and Polls had been saying he was going to get a 20% lead. Hence how Shaun Bailey ended up as the Tory candidate. No one else wanted it and the Tories did not spend much time and resources on the campaign.

I wonder if they had if the result might have been different. Maybe Khan is beatable after all.

I wonder if it is all down to the approaching ULEZ, an awful lot of cars and vans are about to be made worthless. Potentially a Poll tax on wheels.

Rational Plan. | 09.05.21 - 8:35 a.m. | #

Bad news. Not returning Count Binface means that the hand dryer in the Crown and Treaty pub will remain in an inaccessible position for another 4 years.
How did 87000 vote for too many candidates? Voting slip looks pretty straightforward.

scrumpy | 09.05.21 - 8:48 a.m. | #

The upcoming ULEZ should only affect about 20% of vehicles, but I suspect Shaun’s much-exaggerated campaign rattled a lot more car owners.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 09.05.21 - 8:52 a.m. | #

FYI "North East" is Islington as well as Hackney and Waltham Forest.

slakko | 09.05.21 - 8:53 a.m. | #

Very concerned about change to FPTP. The Tories know that it will benefit them, which is exactly why they're doing it.

Harry Harrison | 09.05.21 - 8:59 a.m. | #

In Orpington we ONLY had campaign material from Shaun Bailey. A magazine, several letters including one from Rishi Sunak with pre-filled postal voting forms (which would go back through Conservative HQ). Plenty of money spent here mostly telling us how we could be charged to come into Greater London.

Lucy | 09.05.21 - 9:14 a.m. | #

Only 20% of vehicles!!! That is in fact huge numbers of people. That's Poll tax numbers.

Won't effect many people in Zone 2, But Zone 3 is another matter. It's not just people who line inside the ULEZ it's people who live within a few miles of it as well.

It will heavily people who can't afford to buy new cars that comply. Imagine the resale values with that many cars on the market.

Without a massive subsidy scheme for people to buy replacement cars. It's a scheme that destroys a lot peoples wealth. (And if you go oh well it's only on vehicles worth a few thousands pounds, then you are lucky to think that's not a lot of money).

Rational Plan. | 09.05.21 - 9:31 a.m. | #

We covered the ULEZ debate here.

The 20% had every reason not to vote for Sadiq. But a lot of the other 80% will have been needlessly worried by Shaun's disingenuous campaign.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 09.05.21 - 9:34 a.m. | #

The Lib Dems were virtually the only party with front garden boards in Richmond and came fourth in both polls.

Sprout Eater | 09.05.21 - 9:57 a.m. | #

Actually, the winner here was "couldn't be bothered to vote" with a clear majority. They should rerun the election until a real candidate wins.

Jimbo | 09.05.21 - 9:59 a.m. | #

What happened in the Tower Hamlets mayor/leader&cabinet face-off?

dg writes: Mayor won, by miles.

Charles | Homepage | 09.05.21 - 9:59 a.m. | #

The comments on social media I read yesterday were all about how Sadiq underperformed because of his support for the Silvertown tunnel while here it's apparently because of support for ULEZ. I guess he's stuck either way.

eric | 09.05.21 - 10:11 a.m. | #

A pretty poor turnout really, showing that lack of enthusiasm in Sadiq, but also the lack of enthusiasm in the alternatives.

What disappointed me was the lack of information about the Assembly members, I received no campaign material about the individuals I was meant to be voting for. Especially relevant as the one in my area (Andrew Dinsmore) was stepping down.

Mikey C | 09.05.21 - 10:51 a.m. | #

Either the polling industry has got it wrong again, or it's the shy Tory in force again.

Either way, serious questions need to be asked, because this was very unhelpful for both parties.

Jonathan | 09.05.21 - 11:12 a.m. | #

A poorly promoted campaign from all sides. The only leaflet through our door (Harrow) was for Sadiq and it arrived on the morning of the election! We'd already posted our forms by then!

I also think there's a lot of voter apathy now. We've had so much of it over the last 5 years and having seen the resulting outcomes I can totally sympathise with the 'can't be arsed' brigade.
I'll continue to vote for my MP as he works really hard for us, but I've lost all faith in his party as a whole. They're all as bad as each other.

Cornish Cockney | 09.05.21 - 11:27 a.m. | #

Not easy for Sadiq Khan being a Labour Mayor of the capital when there is a Tory government in power who will try to keep TFL underfunded, especially with the huge drop in passenger numbers recently. Money has to be raised somewhere.
Many of the people who worry about the ULEZ would probably support reducing carbon emissions. We are all going to pay soon one way or another even if it is just replacing a gas boiler with electrical heating.

John | 09.05.21 - 11:30 a.m. | #

The outcome is probably a combination of shy tories and couldn’t be arsed Labour voters.

Labour’s big strategy is to go knock on doors in the estates to get you out and vote because they know that a lot of their supporters won’t vote unless pushed.

The Tory strategy is to bombard you with false and misleading direct mail campaigns. I remember a “survey” from the Bailey campaign basically asking if I thought crime was too high or that I was happy with the amount of crime in my community.

I’m a paid up Labour member (but after a year of Starmer that may not be for much longer) and I gave my first preference to Sian Berry. The greens probably have the best policies for making our communities better but they never get a look in. More coverage was given to Lawrence Fox who got 1/4 the votes of Sian.

Beanie | 09.05.21 - 11:40 a.m. | #

Yet again my solitary votes made not a blind bit of difference either way. What's the point?

Strabismus | 09.05.21 - 11:40 a.m. | #

Any one person's vote makes no difference, at very nearly every election ever, whatever the system. It is the paradox of the heap.

Having said that, some voting systems do rather better than others at helping people to feel that voting might make a difference.

And many people working together can sometimes make a difference. Which should encourage co-operation.

Malcolm of Kent | 09.05.21 - 12:16 p.m. | #

I saw absolutely nothing before the election to announce or explain the unfamiliar voting system. I wasn't sure for example whether it was mandatory to make a second choice.

dg writes: Pages 8 and 11 of the booklet you should've been sent in the post.

kev | 09.05.21 - 1:26 p.m. | #

Some of those who "couldn't be arsed to vote" do not support the role of an elected mayor. I accept that some will always do a good job, standing up for their region but the position is still a means to undermine the majority elected party, especially when that party is 'progressive' (can be a euphemism) and the mayor can be someone more 'traditional' (almost certainly a euphemism). This isn't universally valid but that's how I see the practice. I voted on both of the other ballot papers but not for the mayor.

Joel | 09.05.21 - 1:27 p.m. | #

Didn't get a booklet in the post or a polling card but was still on the list.

kev | 09.05.21 - 1:35 p.m. | #

Huge sigh of relief at the Treasury, who can now pass the burden for funding Transport for London back to the Mayor.

Paul | 09.05.21 - 1:50 p.m. | #

The ULEZ is about air quality rather than carbon emissions. Effectively it's a way of removing older diesel engined vehicles from London, as they're the ones being targeted.

Mikey C | 09.05.21 - 3:12 p.m. | #

The instructions were perfectly clear on the ballot paper. Maybe people can't be bothered to read them.

Johnny Topaz | 09.05.21 - 3:13 p.m. | #

I did get the distinct impression Shaun was hand picked to fail, allowing Boris to engineer a cynical pantomime reboot of No. 10 v County Hall. Sadiq now looks increasingly haunted by the prospect of trying to navigate an unprecedented economic disaster, without meaningful political support, while harried relentlessly. I don't think this is likely to make London a better or happier place.

Brexit and Working From Home may yet turn out to be central London's version of the de-industrialisation that crippled so much of the country north of Watford under Thatcher. (I can't, in my heart, believe this will happen, but Brexit, Trump, the pandemic, Boris-worship, and the zero percent inflation economic landscape are just a few of the other things I never, in my heart, expected to happen.)

Two ambitious blondes with iconic hairstyles.. she destroyed the north, now, he'll trash the nation's heart.. At least we may get a Comic Strip Presents reboot to match.

JP | 09.05.21 - 4:30 p.m. | #

We should all be worried about the state of democracy in this country now. The Tories are not going to give up power readily anytime soon. They will try every trick from gerrymandering to bribery to stay there. I wouldn't be surprised if the people weren't out on the streets in protest some time soon.

Tones | 09.05.21 - 5:11 p.m. | #

In previous years they've released an Excel spreadsheet with all the permutations of first and second preferences - I guess it'll take them a while to tabulate, but it's interesting seeing how many people vote, for example, Tory first then Labour second (an ultimately pointless combination) or for the same candidate twice.

martin | 09.05.21 - 5:14 p.m. | #

Two thoughts: 1) The London mayorality/Assembly system appears to have been deliberately created to give the illusion of democratic representation while ensuring the Mayor has few meaningful powers (no remit for education or budget for housing as such, can easily be over-ruled on planning, left to pick up the pieces on TfL after the Treasury has its way) so as never to risk a new powerful GLC-style opposition to central government.

2) If the dreadful Covid deaths, govt mis-handling and cronyism weren’t enough to bring mass protests and allowed the Tories to triumph in Hartlepool and council elections, I fear it’s hard to envisage Tory gerrymandering bringing anyone out on the streets (not least because so many people have never even heard of the Boundary Commission, which is being used as the chief weapon in attempts to keep Boris and co in power in perpetuity).

Labourer | 09.05.21 - 6:11 p.m. | #

Bexley and Bromley as the “most cockwombly constituency” is 100% accurate.

Jen | 09.05.21 - 6:32 p.m. | #

Stuff the gripes about old diesel cars, what about all the CO2-reducing, oxygen-producing trees that were chopped down to provide all the leaflets (and that booklet) which, according to the above comments, not everybody reads. Politicians' hot air made manifest at a cost to us all.

JP minimus | 09.05.21 - 8:22 p.m. | #

Tories cant win an election honestly so will change the voting system back to FPTP making it less democratic in the hope they can win.

Andrew Jarman | 09.05.21 - 9:39 p.m. | #

Sad to say, Jen, that Bexley & Bromley is my constituency. It's tough here not being a Conservative.

Jonathan | 10.05.21 - 8:18 a.m. | #

Amused by the comments and the conspiracy theories on what is a middle of the road blog.

Turnout was not materially different than any other year, the Boundary Commission is very much independent, no big hitting Tory was interested in the Mayoral position because no-one thought they could win it at the time of selection, very few of the electorate are impacted by ULEZ extension - possibly 5% at most and given a coroner has found that poor air quality was a cause of death in the case of Ella Kissi-Debrah then TfL would possibly come under legal pressure if it did not do anything to address the issue.

Wait until plans for London wide road user charging are announced for a real political battle

kerspatula | 10.05.21 - 8:30 a.m. | #

On londonelects.org.uk there are several downloadable files including Mayoral Final Results 2021 (as a pdf)

Bob L-S | 10.05.21 - 1:12 p.m. | #

Full results with all the combinations of first and second preferences: [spreadsheet]

martin | 12.05.21 - 9:20 p.m. | #

I think London Elects AND the parties, even the smaller ones who would benefit from it, have never explained well (or at all) how the Supplementary Vote system works, and thus people still vote with FPTP mindsets, including the 'fear' that makes people vote to 'keep out' rather than voting 'FOR'. Which, of course, the SV voting system is designed to make unnecessary.

Rob | 16.05.21 - 7:56 p.m. | #











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