Greens are the Third Party in London

Jenny Jones, the Green party candidate for mayor of London, finished third in the ballot, beating the Lib Dem candidate, Brian Paddick into fourth place. The result of the first preference vote was as follows:

Boris Johnson CON 971,931 44.01%

Ken Livingstone LAB 889,918 40.30% 

Jenny Jones GRN 98,913 4.48%   

Brian Paddick LD 91,774 4.16%   

Siobhan Benita IND 83,914 3.80%   

Lawrence Webb UKIP 43,274 1.96%   

Carlos Cortiglia BNP 28,751 1.30%   

After second preference votes were counted, Boris Johnson, the Conservative party candidate was confirmed as mayor of London, winning by 3% points.

The Greens also finished as the third party on the London Assembly, again beating the Lib Dems into fourth place. And the same was true in the local constituency of Enfield and Haringey, where the Green party candidate Peter Krakowiak who gained 8.5% against the Lib Dems 9.4%, but in the London wide Member ballot we beat the Lib Dems 9.4% to us and 6.8% to them.

In the London wide additional member ballot the Greens achieved 8.5% of the vote across Greater London, with the Lib Dems managing only 6.79%.

As more detailed information becomes available, more analysis will be published on this blog, but for now it is clear that the Lib Dems have taken a battering in London and the rest of the country. This was predictable, since many people who voted for them at the last General Election are aghast that that has led to the Lib Dems propping up an uncaring Tory government, hell bent on wrecking the welfare state.

Labour overall have had a good election, although they failed to retake the London mayoralty, and there does appear to be a reluctance amongst some of the voters to back Labour, which leaves a gap for the Green party to exploit. With the Lib Dems discredited and unpopular, voters may turn to the Greens now in London, if they are unwilling to support either of the big parties.