Boris Johnson stood for the post of London mayor for the Conservative Party, his office announced on Monday 16th July.
Johnson, who has become a household name thanks to appearances on television shows like "Have I Got News For You", had been mulling whether to stand for one of the most high-profile jobs in British politics.
Johnson's key policies included: cracking down on street crime, better homes, making cycling safer and easing overcrowded Tube trains.
A few minutes before midnight on the evening of 2 May 2008, Boris Johnson was confirmed as having won the London Mayor election, beating the incumbent Ken Livingstone. He won on second preference votes, as he did not receive enough first preference votes to win outright; 1,168,738 votes as against Livingstone's 1,028,966. Following his victory, he praised Livingstone as a "very considerable public servant"
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Paul Blanchard
Boris Johnson would "do a brilliant job" as London mayor and is "exactly the kind of leader" the capital needs, Tory leader David Cameron says.
He was "twice as charismatic, twice as energetic" as rival and current mayor Ken Livingstone, Mr Cameron said.
Mr Cameron spoke out at the official launch of Mr Johnson's campaign in Edmonton, north London.
Mr Johnson, who polls suggest is in the lead for the 1 May election, said that tackling crime was his top priority.
If elected he would set up a fund to encourage London's "wealth creators" to support voluntary sector projects tackling the city's social problems.
Mr Johnson said he believed it was possible to get more police on the streets and said creating a safer city was central to everything else that he wanted to achieve.
Earlier, he met the family of teenager Ofiyke Nmezu, who died after an assault last month. A teenager has been charged with the boy's murder.
'Shocking' statistics
Mr Cameron said crime was the "single biggest factor undermining our quality of life in this great city," adding 27 teenagers had been murdered last year while 11 had already been killed this year.
Cameron on Johnson
Mr Cameron said: "London's real problem is a lack of leadership - there's no excuse for it. One person has the job of running this city ...the mayor of London."
While the Tory leader conceded that Mr Livingstone "did do some good things" when he came to power in 2000, he said Mr Livingstone's administration was "badly run and bogged down in corruption investigations".
'Brilliant job'
In contrast, the Conservatives' candidate, Boris Johnson" was "as big a figure as Ken Livingstone - and twice as charismatic".
"I was delighted when Boris decided to run for mayor because I knew he'd do a brilliant job, not just as a candidate but as exactly the kind of leader that London needs," he said.
Analysis: Boris hits campaign trail
"I don't always agree with him but I respect the fact that he's absolutely his own man. He's a proper Conservative - practical, open-minded and keen to get things done.
"And he's someone who has a properly thought-through plan to make London better."
The appearance of Mr Cameron alongside Mr Johnson comes amid signs that the Conservative leader is growing more confident of his candidate's chances of success on polling day.
Mr Johnson, an ex-magazine editor and MP for Henley, says he will leave Parliament if he wins the mayoralty.
Bendy buses
He has promised to divert funds from the mayor's "publicity budget" to pay for 440 more police community support officers on buses and pay for more police officers to patrol railway platforms.
He also says he would encourage union bosses to agree not to strike on the London Underground and would scrap bendy buses in favour of Routemasters - which would have conductors and disabled access and be run on environmentally friendly fuel.
He would tackle the intimidation felt by Londoners on the buses by teenagers "acting up".
"I want to challenge the assumption that there is nothing cooler than the gangs," he said.
And he would target low-level disorder, such as fare evasion, which he said would make a "real difference" on crime.
Later Labour's Ken Livingstone, who is running for a third term as mayor, outlined his housing manifesto, with an appeal to first-time buyers priced out of the market.
The London mayor has plans to deliver 50,000 affordable homes in three years. Mr Johnson pledges the same level of housing by 2011.
Mr Livingstone told the BBC he had more than doubled the amount of affordable housing in London since he became mayor and had "called it right" on all the key political issues - from the congestion charge and the 2012 Olympic bid to opposing the war in Iraq.
"I think the mayor needs to get 90% of decisions right or the city's in trouble," he said.
"You need to get all the big decisions right. It's all
Boris Johnson last night notched up the Tories' greatest electoral success since John Major's surprise victory in the 1992 general election when he unseated Ken Livingstone as mayor of London.
Ecstatic Conservatives cheered at London's City Hall, at the end of a count lasting more than 15 hours, as the man who had been dismissed as the Bertie Wooster of British politics took charge of one of the biggest political offices in Britain.
Johnson won just over 1m first preference votes to secure 42.48%; Ken Livingstone came second with 893,877 first preference votes (36.38%); Brian Paddick, the Liberal Democrat candidate, came third with 236,685 votes to give him 9.63%.
Paddick was then eliminated along with the seven other candidates. Their second preference votes were distributed, giving Johnson 1,168,738 votes (53%) and 1,028,966 for Livingstone (47%).
Johnson, who was declared the winner shortly before midnight, reassured London that he would do his best to maintain his new serious image. "I was elected as new Boris and I will govern as new Boris, or whatever the phrase is," he joked this morning in a pun on Tony Blair's famous New Labour declaration. David Cameron quickly hailed the result, and there was even a congratulatory phone call from Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York.
In a sign of his determination to reach across party lines, Johnson adopted a more serious pose in his acceptance speech as he paid a warm tribute to his defeated rival. Turning to Livingstone, standing behind on a platform at City Hall, the new mayor said: "I think you have been a very considerable public servant and a distinguished leader of this city. You shaped the office of mayor. You gave it national prominence and when London was attacked on July 7 2005 you spoke for London.
"And I can tell you that your courage and the sheer exuberant nerve with which you stuck it to your enemies, especially in New Labour, you have thereby earned the thanks of millions of Londoners even if you think that they have a funny way of showing it today."
Johnson made clear that he still envisaged a role for Livingstone, who had suggested he would have offered his Tory rival a job if he had held office. "When we have that drink together, which we both so richly deserve, I hope we can discover a way in which the mayoralty can continue to benefit from your transparent love of London, a city whose energy conquered the world and which now brings the world together in one city," Johnson said.
Livingstone, who will have to watch as Johnson represents London at the Beijing Olympics in August as the torch is passed over for the 2012 games, apologised for losing after eight years in office. With his voice almost breaking with emotion, Livingstone said: "I'm sorry I couldn't get an extra few points that would take us to victory and the fault for that is solely my own." He said he couldn't be mayor for eight years and then blame someone else for not getting a third term. "I accept that responsibility and I regret that I couldn't take you [Labour supporters] to victory."
Johnson's victory capped a highly successful 24 hours for the Tories, who won 44% of the vote in the separate council elections in England and Wales, convincing many Conservatives that they are on their way to Downing Street. "This is like the March on Rome in 1922," one shadow minister said as Johnson inched towards victory. Johnson will not march into London's City Hall surrounded by blackshirts in the manner of Benito Mussolini's supporters when they staged their coup d'état in 1920s Italy. But the lighthearted reference to 1922 gave a taste of the high Tory spirits.
Johnson's victory was particularly sweet for the Tories because London has been, until relatively recently, hostile territory for the Conservatives, who lost a string of parliamentary seats in the capital in the Labour landslide of 1997. "It is impossible to overestimate the significance of victory," said one senior T
Martin Steele
Well Red Ken can go back to his newts.
3 week ago
Conservative Party Great Britain
Johnson is a fantastic eccentric politician , he brings much neede vibrancy to politics, yet at the same time he is a serious guided man who will implement policies to improve London and the country as a whole. He has already succeded in banning alcohol from public transport and got more police on the street. Over the next four years London will improve as a city, the centre of the world under his leadership.
Before you London had a very good mayor who did many good things, that is Ken Livingstone. Now you now take after him as the London Mayor. Now he did some very good things like made the South Bank much nicer, made Bus fares cheaper, made museums free and put the congestion charge up for people driving 4 by 4, which completely wreck the enviroment. Now you are a Conservative, and you want to be a good Mayor of London, well I think you want to be one. Now already who have made some wrong decisions liked ditch the idea of 4 by 4's having to pay extra congestion charge and have made some really nasty comments that are really offencive to black people and do you really want to destroy London. Now just because your wive is Asian that doesn't mean you can be racise.
I wish you the best of luck and hope you are a brilliant Mayor and change my opinions about Conservatives.
Thank you, Luke!
5 week ago
David Forbes
HELLO TO EVERYONE THAT READS THIS COMMENT - I NEED YOUR SHOW OF SUPPORT FOR MY CAMPAIGN - PLZ TAKE A MOMENT TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR CARERS IN ABERDEEN!
Children From The Sea
Oh my Gawd! Somebody's made a mistake
But yer never had a choice
7 week ago
Patrick C
ondz i ove boris so much go on youtube and search "patrick sniffing boris jonson" x
7 week ago
Cherry-Ann
im sorry, but do you know if there is a ken appreciation society? 3 of my sisters live in london, and i really dont believe that boris will 'improve' london. the only feelings i have for boris are disgust.
cherry x
7 week ago
Michael F
Press Interview: Have you ever had sex with a man?
