London Mayoral Election 2021: Who will be the next Mayor of London?

Adarsha Barta Desk:

The London mayoral election will be held on Thursday, 6 May 2021. The mayoral and Assembly elections were originally due to be held on 7 May 2020. However, in March 2020 the government announced the election would be postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nominations for the mayoral candidates closed on March 30. Mayoral candidates require 66 signatures of people on the electoral register in London supporting the nomination, 2 from each of the 32 London boroughs and 2 from the City of London. It costs £10,000 to join the contest and the deposit is lost if candidates get fewer than 5% of the vote.

This year there are a record-breaking 20 candidates standing in the London mayoral election and here is the full list of candidates (alphabetically):

• BAILEY Shaun – Conservative Party
• BALAYEV Kam – Renew
• BERRY Sian – Green Party
• BINFACE Count – Count Binface for Mayor of London
• CORBYN Piers – Let London Live
• FOSH Max – Independent,
• FOX Laurence – The Reclaim Party
• GAMMONS Peter – UKIP
• HEWISON Richard – Rejoin EU
• HUDSON Vanessa – Animal Welfare Party – People Animals, Environment
• KELLEHER Steve – Social Democratic Party
• KHAN Sadiq – Labour Party
• KURTEN David – Heritage Party
• LONDON Farah – Independent
• BROWN Valerie – The Burning Pink Party
• OBUNGE Nims – Independent
• OMILANA Niko – Independent
• PORRITT Luisa – Liberal Democrats
• REID Mandu – Vote Women’s Equality Party on orange
• ROSE Brian – London Real Party

Mayoral candidates (Photo: Getty)

“The Mayor and the London Assembly hold important and powerful roles. The winning Mayoral candidate will be responsible for issues that affect every Londoner – from transport and policing, to housing and the environment. 2016 saw a then-record number of 12 Mayoral candidates. This year, there will be 20, the largest number yet,” said Greater London Returning Officer, Mary Harpley.

More than six million people are registered to vote in London on 6 May. According to a recent poll conducted by ComRes for ITV London, Sadiq Khan leads on his Conservative opposition, Shaun Bailey, by 41% to 28% on first preference votes.

Mr Khan, the Labour’s mayoral candidate was elected as London’s Mayor in 2016 and is running for his second term in office. He was formerly the MP for Tooting from 2005 until 2016 and a human rights lawyer. The 50 year old also served as a minister in Gordon Brown’s government.

Mr Bailey, the Conservative’s mayoral candidate has been a member of the London Assembly since 2016. The 50 year old former youth worker served as a special advisor on youth and crime to David Cameron during his term as prime minister in 2012.

Londoners have to wait until late Thursday, 6 May to find out who will be their Mayor.