Electoral History of Ken Livingstone
1971-1978: One of three Labour councillors representing Knight's Hill ward, London Borough of Lambeth
1971 def: J. Johnstone (Con), M. F. Drake (Lib) (showing only lead candidates)
1974 def: J. R. Farrall (Con), S. C. Mellor (Lib) (showing only lead candidates)
1973-1977: Greater London Council member for Norwood (Labour)
1973 def: M. P. R. Malynn (Con), M. F. Drake (Lib), H. Young (Socialist Party of Great Britain)
1977-1981: Greater London Council member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Labour)
1977 def: L. R. House (Con), Mrs S. May (National Front), M. Owen (Lib), M. Goldman (Communist)
1977: Selected as Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Hampstead
1977: def. Vince Cable (Lab)
1979: Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Hampstead
1979: Geoffrey Finsberg (Con) def. Ken Livingstone (Lab), D. Radford (Lib), J. White (National Front)
1980: Candidate for selection of Labour Leader on the Greater London Council
1980: Andrew McIntosh (Lab) def. Ken Livingstone (Lab)
1981-1986: Greater London Council member for Paddington (Labour)
1981: def. Mrs P. M. Kirwan (Con), J. Spillius (Social Democratic Alliance), A. J. Brett (Lib), W. T. Acton (National Front), D. P. Green (Save London Action Group)
1984 by-ection seeking re-election: def. S. J. Harris (Lib), R. E. G. Simmerson (Ind C - anti-Common Market), S. W. D. Banks (Ind - abolish the GLC), R. L. Denny (National Front), G. A. Colerick (Ind, ex-Lab), P. J. Nealon (Ind, "Gaitskell Labour against Marxist Labour")
1981-1986: Labour Leader on the Greater London Council and Head of the Greater London Council
1981: def. Andrew McIntosh (Lab)
(1986: GLC abolished)
1985: Selected as Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Brent East
1985: def. Reg Freeson (Lab, inc.)
1987-2001: MP for Brent East (Lab 1987-2000, Ind 2000-2001)
1987 def: Harriet Crawley (Con), Daniel Finkelstein (SDP), Riaz Dooley (Ind Lab), Miles Litvnoff (Green)
1992 def. Damian Green (Con, Fictional), Mark Cummins (Lib Dem), Theresa M. Deen (Green), Anne G. Murphy (Communist)
1997 def: Mark Francois (Con), Ian M. C. Hunter (Lib Dem), Stan E. Keable (Socialist Labour), Andrew J. Shanks (ProLife Alliance), Claire M. Warrilow (Rainbow Dream Ticket), Dean Jenkins (Natural Law)
2000: Candidate for selection of Labour candidate for Mayor of London election, 2000
2000: Frank Dobson (Lab) def. Ken Livingstone (Lab), Glenda Jackson (Lab)
(2000: Expelled from Labour Party for seeking office against the official Labour candidate)
2000-2008: Mayor of London (Ind 2000-2004, Lab 2004-2008)
2000: def. Steven Norris (Con), Frank Dobson (Lab), Susan Kramer (Lib Dem), Ram Gidoornal (Christian Peoples), Darren Johnson (Green), Michael Newland (BNP), Damian Hockney (UKIP), Geoffrey Ben-Nathan (Pro-Motorist Small Shop), Ashwin Tanna (Ind), Geoffrey Clements (Natural Law)
2004: def. Steven Norris (Con), Simon Hughes (Lib Dem), Frank Maloney (UKIP), Lindsey German (Respect), Julian Leppert (BNP), Darren Johnson (Green), Ram Giroornal (Christian Peoples), Lorna Reid (Independent Working Class Association), Tammy Nagalingam (Ind)
(2004: Readmitted to the Labour Party)
2004: Selected as Labour candidate for Mayor of London, 2004 (unopposed)
2007: Selected as Labour candidate for Mayor of London election, 2008 (unopposed)
2008: Candidate for Mayor of London election, 2008
2008: Boris Johnson (Con) def. Ken Livingstone (Lab), Brian Paddick (Lib Dem), Sian Berry (Green), Richard Barnbrook (BNP), Alan Craig (Christian Peoples), Gerard Batten (UKIP), Lindsey German (Left List), Matt O'Connor (English Democrat), Winston McKenzie (Independent)
2010: Selected as Labour candidate for Mayor of London election, 2012
2010: def. Oona King (Lab)
2012: Candidate for Mayor of London election, 2012
2012: Boris Johnson (Con) def. Ken Livingstone (Lab), Jenny Jones (Green), Brian Paddick (Lib Dem), Siobhan Benita (Ind), Lawrence Webb (UKIP), Carlos Cortiglia (BNP)
2012-2018: Private citizen, Labour member
(2018 Resigned from the Labour Party)
2018-2020: Private citizen, independent
Considering all the other political drama at the time with the ever-continuing extensions to Brexit negotiations, it was expected that the London mayoral election of 2020 would be a damp squib by comparison. Although Sadiq Khan had had a number of controversies, in particular his response to the cancellation of Crossrail 2, he remained broadly popular with Londoners. The race drew more media attention when the Conservatives selected Shaun Bailey, meaning (as the Evening Standard noted) that both major parties would be represented by a BAME candidate, and given the strength of the two-party system in London mayoral elections, that effectively guaranteed there would be a BAME mayor regardless. Some commentators (notably and controversially in The Spectator) began speculating whether the Liberal Democrats or Greens could get a shy racist voter boost purely from happening to have a white candidate. (It was telling that nobody was taking UKIP seriously at this point, being the more obvious destination for such voters). This controversy filled the media bubble for a while and may have played a role in the Lib Dems and Greens also deciding to select BAME candidates to avoid being tarred with this brush even by implication. It would seem that UKIP might be the destination for such voters after all (nobody ever seemed to speculate about the possibility of them just staying home) but that was put paid when Raheem Kassam staged a takeover of the party and seized the nomination for himself.
Meanwhile, in the background, Ken Livingstone was finding political retirement tiresome. The Labour Party was finally in the hands of his ideological allies from the old days, yet with the controversies attaching to his many statements on 'the Jewish issue', he had been shunned from the corridors of power, a bitter irony. Channel 4 made a controversial drama in 2019 about his tenure as Mayor of London, which met with equal criticism from Livingstone's supporters and detractors over its alternating emphasis on his undeniable achievements as Mayor and his anti-Semitic statements. The ultimate result was to return Livingstone to the public eye, something which Owen Jones (in one of the last posts made on Twitter before its financial collapse) accused Channel 4 of doing deliberately to harm Jeremy Corbyn by association.
Livingstone began to idly play with the idea of another Mayoral run, with no real hope of victory, of course, but just to live his old life once again. Of course, the hefty deposit would be a problem, but as in 2000, he was able to find some wealthy supporters who would cover it, though these preferred to stay more in the shadows than Chris Evans had two decades before. His announcement of his candidacy drew media attention at the time, with some comparing it to a more proletarian version of Donald Trump's declaration to seek the presidency in 2015, but as the campaign wore on, Livingstone received less attention. Quietly, in the background, he built up a network of support, aided by the fact that the mainstream parties had tended to put all their eggs in one basket when it came to the former social media landscape that had been rendered obsolete overnight. In particular Livingstone sought to appeal to older voters with fond memories of his time as Mayor, and even as Head of the GLC. Fittingly, given UKIP's increasing irrelevance, he was even able to reuse the purple and yellow colour scheme of his 2000 run to jog some memories. He officially stood under the tagline "Homes, Innovation, Transport - London's Economic Revival!" a slogan which he would shout into any microphone nearby.
Though Sadiq Khan's selection in 2015 had been heralded as an indicator that Corbyn would win the leadership contest announced shortly afterwards--suggesting a crossover in support between the two at the time--relations between them had grown increasingly strained over time, in particular Corbyn's statements on terrorist attacks in London in 2019, which Khan saw as undermining his attempt to rally Londoners with the Blitz spirit. This reached breaking point when, with typical mendacity, Corbyn waffled when asked by gotcha journalists to condemn Livingstone's independent run. Corbyn did say Livingstone was wrong to stand against the Labour candidate, but was unable to do so without praising Livingstone's mayoral achievements, and of course this was suitably edited down by the media into what sounded like an endorsement of Livingstone. Khan rang Corbyn in the heat of the momentand words were said that could not be unsaid, before the truth of the edited footage came out.
Meanwhile, other parts of the media were focusing relentlessly on the very BAME-heavy field of candidates, much to Khan's annoyance, as the identity politics focus drew attention away from his detailed plans for how to transform London's housing situation in his second term. Indeed, it felt as though Livingstone, in his rare TV and radio appearances, was the only candidate to be asked about policy rather than his background. Though Khan was generally considered very competent and restrained in interviews, John Humphrys (in his new job on LBC after finally being ejected from Today) managed to get a rise out of him about this, and Khan expressed his frustration live on air in a way that (polls said) chimed well with how many well-engaged BAME voters had also seen the tone of the campaign, but alienated others, in particular low-information voters to whom this was the first piece of information about Khan they had received in a while. Corbyn was asked to weigh in and, despite being largely noncommittal, again his words were treated as signs of a soap-opera rift between the two.
As the election drew nearer, LBC held a debate chaired by Nick Ferrari (also televised on London Live, by now the only remaining local TV broadcaster in the UK) and there was controversy over whether Livingstone should be allowed to share a platform with the others, given his past statements. Khan was double-crossed, believing he had agreed with Bailey to jointly boycott the debate and render it a pointless contest of minnows, but Bailey turned up at the last minute. The debate was roughly fifty percent the others railing on Livingstone's anti-Semitic statements, and fifty percent everyone uniting to attack Khan's record, with him not there to defend himself. Livingstone was, of course, the only one there with actual experience as Mayor of London, and YouGov polling afterwards suggested that his authoritative and numbers-based discussion had resonated with and impressed some younger voters without much preconceptions of him--in contrast to the often vague and noncommittal statements of the other candidates, who mostly stuck to memorised soundbites and were unable to move away from them in discussion. If Khan had been there, of course, he would have been able to respond on the same level (indeed, with more up-to-date numbers and examples) but he was not.
As the sun set on the day of May 7th 2020, conventional wisdom said that Khan would win an easy victory, as Bailey had failed to cut through to voters and obviously no other outcome was possible. The reality, which wore long into the 8th and 9th with recounts (evoking more than one election from 2000) was quite different:
London Mayoral election, 2020
First preference votes:
Ken Livingstone (Independent "H.I.T.L.E.R."): 28.2%
Shaun Bailey (Conservative): 28.1%
Sadiq Khan (Labour): 28.1%
Others: 15.6%
With transfer votes:
Ken Livingstone (Independent "H.I.T.L.E.R."): 52.3%
Shaun Bailey (Conservative): 47.7%
The recount controversy concerned not the gap between winner and runner-up, but the first preference gap between Bailey and Khan, which came to only hundreds of votes across the whole of Greater London. Under the SV voting system, if Khan was in second, he had enough second preferences from Greens and Lib Dems to defeat Livingstone; but Bailey did not.
In the end, the result was eventually and reluctantly certified by the Electoral Commission. Condemnations came from around the world, and both major parties talked of the need to reform the voting system for Mayor of London, but neither could agree on how.
Ken Livingstone began a second vicarious political life as Mayor of London, but his time in office would be brief: six months later he would be removed for hate speech and the first ever by-election for London Mayor would be held.
