wikimaze

BORIS JOHNSON praised Ken Livingstone as a "very considerable public servant" and appeared to offer him a role in his new administration after being elected Mayor of London.

The Conservative candidate seized City Hall from the two-term Labour incumbent, with Liberal Democrat Brian Paddick in third place, in a catastrophic day for Labour in local elections.

Mr Johnson polled 1,168,738 votes to Mr Livingstone's 1,028,96ADVERTISEMENT6. After second preferences were allocated, Mr Johnson achieved around 53 per cent to Mr Livingstone's 47 per cent.

Mr Johnson told Mr Livingstone

: "I hope we can discover a way in which the mayoralty can continue to benefit from your transparent love of London."

He finished his speech with the words: "Let's get cracking tomorrow – let's have a drink tonight."

The result heaped further pressure on Prime Minister Gordon Brown after his party plunged to its worst council election results in four decades. Mr Johnson is the first Conservative mayor since the post was created and comes in on a wave of record voting.

At 45 per cent of those registered, turnout was a fifth up on 2004. It was the first time two million people have voted in the mayoral contest.

Mr Johnson's win was delivered in part by London's outer boroughs, where the Tory share was up in some areas by as much as 12 per cent.

Mr Livingstone's vote was also up in many Labour areas, but not by enough.

The record voting tally put back the announcement of the result from 8.30pm to nearly midnight as the electronic vote-counting machines struggled to cope with the numbers of ballots cast.

Many commentators dismissed Mr Johnson as a joke when the idea of his candidacy was first mooted.

But his pledges – among them to tackle crime on public transport, not to introduce a £25 congestion charge on higher-emission vehicles and to bring back the Routemaster proved popular.

Mr Livingstone proved unable to buck the national trend and suffered from a string of negative headlines and allegations of sleaze.

Mr Johnson's team confirmed he would stand down as MP for Henley as soon as possible. Mr Livingstone accepted defeat in the contest and said it was his own fault that he hadn't won a third election: "I accept that responsibility and I regret that I couldn't take you to victory," he said.

Tory leader David Cameron and New York mayor Michael Bloomberg were among the first to congratulate Mr Johnson.

Mr Cameron hailed a "serious and energetic" campaign and "remarkable" victory.

Aside from choosing a new mayor, London voters had also been choosing the 25-member London Assembly, with 14 members elected directly from constituencies, each made up of two London boroughs, and the remaining 11 divided between the parties in proportion to London-wide votes.

The British National Party (BNP) gained its first seat on the London Assembly after passing the five per cent voter threshold. By Paul Wilson