We'll be updating this blog throughout election week — check back for updates!
Thursday 2 May
The big day's here! Get out, get voting and remember your ID! Polling stations are open until 10pm.
- A sign of the times at Gospel Oak polling station
My polling station in Gospel Oak this morning. pic.twitter.com/zkIoCZXyOH
— Katie Clark (@katiehwclark) May 2, 2024
- If you're staying up through the night to watch the results roll in, maybe don't get your hopes too high. Most votes, including those for the London Mayor and Assembly, are not being counted overnight. We won't know who the mayor is until Saturday.
- Hashtag of the day seems to be #DogsAtPollingStations. Quite a collection growing, including a post from Sadiq Khan himself. This reminds us of our feature from the 2012 Mayoral Elections, in which we likened each candidate to a breed of dog (somehow failing to bag a Pulitzer).
Wednesday 1 May
String up the ballot paper bunting, and pour yourself a steaming bowl of ULEZ punch — it's Election Eve! Here's what's been going down during the final stretch of election build-up:
- The Daily Mash has got its claws into the Tory Mayoral candidate, with Seven terrible things about London, the city I hate, by mayoral candidate Susan Hall. "Is Khan so obsessed with 'woke' we are no longer allowed to appreciate fine orators like Powell, Laurence Fox and Hitler?" the article asks at one point, in the voice of Hall. Ouch.
- Mind you, as the Guardian reports today, Hall has joined a Facebook group containing Islamophobic hate speech and abusive comments about her opponent Sadiq Khan, so perhaps has some explaining to do...
- Labour, meanwhile, is going on the offensive. While news abounds about misleading website URLs linked to mayoral candidates but actually linking to the Russian government website, Labour has created its own Susan Hall website, accusing her of hating diversity, and being a Liz Truss acolyte.
- It's not all beer and skittles for Camp Sadiq — Khan's team might want to hide the Ipsos article that suggests Mancunians love their Mayor way more than Londoners love theirs.
- YouGov has predicted that Sadiq Khan will win 47% to Susan Hall's 25%. Other sources have his lead down as much slimmer. As we all know *cough, cough politics in 2016* voting doesn't necessarily go the way of the polls. Which is our cue to remind you to take some ID and GO VOTE THIS THURSDAY!
- It's not all about Khan and Hall of course: check out our guide to the elections, including all 13 candidates.
Tuesday 30 April
Just a couple of days to go until the 2024 Mayoral elections. And your reminder that we've got a guide to everything here. Now let's get stuck into the build-up.
PoliticsJOE's YouTube channel has published one of its infamous compilations of politicians being batty — and although Liz Truss is a hard act to beat, they've done one on the Tory candidate for Mayor of London, Susan Hall:
Meanwhile, Hall's main opponent, Sadiq Khan, has been getting down with da yoof, by DJing some ABBA at a Croydon community centre. The Telegraph, which published this video, points out that 1,000 venues have closed in the past three years on Khan's watch — although of course Covid has played its part.
So which of these two candidates is going to be victorious? The Conversation says the polls are tightening — with Khan's lead down from 20 points recently, to just 13 now. And this is interesting:
We found that 77% of Londoners who voted for Khan in 2021 said they would vote for him again if the 2024 mayoral election were to be held tomorrow, while 10% said they would vote for his Conservative rival. A combined total of 9% said they’d switch to Liberal Democrat or Green Party candidates.
In contrast, 85% of the Londoners who voted for Bailey, the 2021 Conservative mayoral candidate, say they would vote Conservative again. Only 5% would switch party by voting for Khan.
One way or another (especially when you consider ULEZ), green credentials will play a big part in how people vote. Greenpeace has ranked candidates based on how green their polices are, scoring Khan 23.5 out of 42 and Hall just 7.5 out of 42. (The Green Party, as you might hope, score an impressive 34 out of 42 — and after all, their leader, Zoe Garbett, has said she'd turn London 'car free' by 2028.) Susan Hall has also called for a 'ULEZ amnesty' on Thursday, to allow people to drive to polling stations without having to pay the £12.50 daily charge. There's no indication this will actually happen.
Perhaps as even bigger issue for young voters is housing. Protest group Housing Rebellion have just set up a 'tent city' outside City Hall, in a call for more affordable housing. According to Inside Housing, there are 85,229 long-term empty and second homes across London.
Monday 29 April
It's election week in London! By this weekend, Londoners will know who their next Mayor is, as well as their London Assembly Members — both London-wide and in their own constituency. (There are three ballot papers to put your cross in.)
Here's our guide to the 2024 elections, including who's running and what they stand for. We also recommend you check out the London Elects site for information on voting.
The most important thing for you to remember this week is that you can vote between 7am-10pm on Thursday 2 May. And for the first time, you'll need to bring ID.
Another first for 2024 is the fact that the Mayoral election is first past the post. That means there's no second choice — you vote for the Mayor you want, and the candidate with most votes overall wins.
With the countdown to D-day on, here are a few things that've caught our eye:
- Sadiq Khan has been cluttering our inbox with policy press releases on a near daily basis. From eliminating rough sleeping to establishing a 'Bakerloop' bus route, here's (some of) what he's promising London, should he be given another four years in office.
- The achilles heel for Khan could be ULEZ (the tax on polluting vehicles) — which some say cost Labour Uxbridge in a by-election last year. (Even Keir Starmer has voiced wariness of it.) Sensing this is her best chance of winning, Susan Hall is vowing to scrap ULEZ expansion on day one of her mayoralty, as well as tackle other 'war on motorist' stuff, such as 20mph zones. She's also warning that Khan will introduce a 'pay per mile' system, even though Khan has said he won't.
- Meanwhile, a group calling themselves the 'ULEZettes' are out and about doing this:
View this post on Instagram
- The mayoral candidacy is being touted as a two-horse race, but could this be the year that Count Binface — the candidate who hails from the planet Sigma IX — makes some serious gains? We spoke to him in 2022 about some of his surprisingly sensible policies, including capping the price of croissants and doubling council tax on second homes.
- Flicking through the booklet outlining the 13 candidates for Mayor, we've noticed a lot of strong language: "London is a sick city", "I want our city back", "London is fast becoming a Third World cesspit" — would we have had this kind of wording 12 years ago? We certainly wouldn't have had politicians blaming 'wokeness' — which a couple of parties feel certain is the reason for many of London's troubles.
- Is it us, or do the Green Party put more paper pamphlets through your letterbox than any other party? Just a little observation.
- Young Londoners have outlined to the BBC what they want. Meanwhile, Sadiq Khan has warned youngsters that if they don't vote, they could wake up to a 'repeat of Brexit and Trump victory'.
- The i has written about Susan Hall's shortcomings.
- Your reminder that staying up all night on Thursday isn't recommended, because we won't know the results of these elections until sometime on Saturday:
