The 2021 London mayoral election was held on 6 May 2021 to elect the mayor of London. It was held simultaneously with elections for the London Assembly, other local elections across England and Wales, and devolved elections in Scotland and Wales. The mayoral and Assembly elections were to be held on 7 May 2020, but in March 2020 the government announced the election would be postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sadiq Khan was re-selected as the Labour candidate in 2018, the Conservative Party selected Shaun Bailey and the Green Party chose Siân Berry. Rory Stewart, a former Conservative MP and minister, ran as an independent before withdrawing due to the delay in the election. Siobhan Benita, who had been the Liberal Democrat candidate, also withdrew after the election delay. She was replaced as the party's candidate by Luisa Porritt. Twenty candidates appeared on the ballot, more than in any previous election for the position.
Sadiq Khan of the Labour Party was re-elected, winning 40% of first preference votes and 55% in a run-off against Bailey.
Background
The mayor of London has responsibilities covering policing, transport, housing, planning, economic development, arts, culture and the environment. They control a budget of around £17 billion per year. Mayors are typically elected for a period of four years, with no limit to the number of terms served. Under the Greater London Authority Act 1999, mayoral elections are held on the first Thursday in May in the fourth calendar year following the previous election, unless varied by an order by the Secretary of State. On 13 March 2020, the government announced the election would be postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The change in election date will be ignored when calculating the four-yearly election cycle. Consequently, the following election will be held in 2024. The mayor elected in 2021 will serve a reduced term of three years. The incumbent mayor, Sadiq Khan, a member of the Labour Party, was elected in the 2016 election, when he defeated the Conservative candidate, Zac Goldsmith.
In the 2018 local elections across Greater London the Labour Party increased its number of council seats to the highest level since 1978. The Liberal Democrats and the Green Party also gained seats. In the 2019 European Parliament elections, the Liberal Democrats came first in London. They won the most votes in the London region with 27%, returning three Members of European Parliament (MEPs), the party's best ever result. The Labour Party came second, with 24% of the vote, losing two seats to end up with two MEPs. The Brexit Party returned two MEPs and the Green Party won 12.5% of the vote, holding its one seat. The Conservative Party failed to get a single MEP elected in London for the first time in the party's history. In the 2019 general election, there was no net change in the number of seats for any party, although several seats changed hands. The biggest changes in vote share were for Labour, who saw a fall of 6.5%, and the Liberal Democrats, who were up 6.1%, compared to the previous 2017 general election.
Electoral system
The election used a supplementary vote system, in which voters express a first and a second preference for candidates. If a candidate receives more than 50% of the first preference vote, that candidate wins If no candidate receives more than 50% of first preference votes, the top two candidates proceed to a second round and all other candidates are eliminated The first preference votes for the remaining two candidates stand in the final count Voters' ballots whose first and second preference candidates have both been eliminated are discarded Voters whose first preference candidates have been eliminated and whose second preference candidate is one of the top two have their second preference votes added to that candidate's count This means that the winning candidate has the support of a majority of voters who expressed a preference among the top two. The 2021 election is planned to be the last conducted using the supplementary vote system; in March 2021, the Government indicated its plan to change the voting system to first past the post from 2024.
All registered electors (British, Irish, Commonwealth and European Union citizens) living in London aged 18 or over were entitled to vote in the mayoral election. Those who were temporarily away from London at the time of the election (for example, away working, on holiday, in student accommodation or in hospital) were also entitled to vote in the mayoral election. The deadline to register to vote in the election was 11:59pm, 19 April 2021.