London Mayoral elections: who's who
Updated on 31 March 2008
Who's put themselves forward to be the next London Mayor? Find out about the candidates here.
Ken Livingstone, Labour
Ken Livingstone was born in Lambeth in 1945 and educated at Tulse Hill Comprehensive School, he qualified as a teacher at the Phillipa Fawcett Teacher Training College in 1973.
In the same year he was elected as a Labour member of the Greater London Council. He was Vice-Chair of Housing Management from 1974 to 1975 and was elected Leader in 1981.
He remained Leader until March 1986 when Margaret Thatcher abolished the GLC.
From 1987 to June 2001 he served as Labour Member of Parliament for Brent East.
In 2000 he was elected Mayor of London, having been expelled from the Labour party for running as an independent candidate.
He was readmitted to the Labour party in 2004, shortly before re-election as Mayor.
Madonna on Ken Livingstone:
"I would make it so that young musicians wouldn't have to pay the Congestion Charge or taxes so they would have money for other things.
"All Red Ken (Livingstone) wants is road works everywhere. I'll just have to walk I guess."
Related links
15 Feb 2008: Livingstone suspends key advisor
22 Jane 2008: Ken defends his whisky drinking
Ken Livingstone website
Livingstone on YouTube
Boris Johnson, Conservative
Boris Johnson was born in New York and educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford.
He has worked as a journalist at The Times, The Telegraph and The Spectator.
Boris Johnson has been Conservative MP for Henley since 2001, and from December 2005 to July 2007 was a Shadow Minister for Higher Education.
He says:
"The Lib Dems are not just empty. They are a void within a vacuum surrounded by a vast inanition."
Related links
Fact Check: are yobs getting a free ride?
Boris Watch
Conservatives profile
Boris on YouTube
More Boris on YouTube
Brian Paddick, Liberal Democrats
Brian Paddick was born in 1958 in Balham and educated in Sutton.
He joined the Metropolitan Police Service in 1976, retiring in May 2007 as the highest ranking openly gay police officer in the UK.
Through police scholarships, he studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Queen's College, Oxford and has a Master of Business Administration from Warwick Business School.
He also has a diploma in Policing and Applied Criminology from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.
Tony Travers, London elections expert, London School of Economics said:
"Brian Paddick, the Liberal Democrat who was a senior police officer in the Metropolitan Police, has actually fought an excellent campaign, probably the best of the three of the leading candidates."
Related links
Brian Paddick website
Brian Paddick on Website
Sian Berry, Green Party
Sian Berry was born in Cheltenham in 1974 and educated at Pate's Grammar School and Trinity College, Oxford, where she studied Metallurgy and the Science of Materials.
She moved to London in 1997.
Berry joined the Green Party aged 28 whilst working as a medical copywriter for large pharmaceutical companies.
She is one of the founding members of the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s and is a former principal speaker for the Green Party.
She was the Green party candidate for Hampstead and Highgate in 2005 elections.
The Independent on Sunday desciribes her as:
"Pure environmental Viagra."
Related links
Sian Berry website
Berry's New Statesman blog
Berry on YouTube
Lindsey German, Left List
Lindsey German was part of the original National Abortion campaign in 1975, as well as the fight for equal pay.
She is convenor of the Stop the War Coalition and a former editor of Socialist Review magazine.
She says:
"I am the only Mayoral candidate speaking out against Brown and Cameron's plans for stop and search and the huge damage they will do to community relations in our city."
Related links
Lindsey, Stop the War Coalition
Elect Respect Coalition
German on YouTube
Gerard Batten, UK Independence Party
Gerard Batten is a former BT salesman.
He was a founding member of the UK Independence Party in September 1993 and the first party secretary from 1994 to 1997.
Batten was elected to the European Parliament for UKIP in 2004. He publishes an annual study called 'How Much Does the European Parliament Cost Britain?'
He says:
"I would like to add my voice to those calling for a posthumous royal pardon to be granted to the metric martyr, Steve Thoburn, who was convicted in the year 2000 for the heinous criminal offence of selling bananas in pounds and ounces and died of a heart attack shortly afterwards."
Related links
Gerard Batten website
Batten on YouTube
Alan Craig, leader of Christian People's Alliance
Alan Craig, is the joint candidate for the Christian Peoples Alliance and the Christian Party.
He has been Councillor for Canning Town South since 2003.
Craig has spent 25 years working in the community in Canning Town, first in a family centre and then a young offenders' hostel.
Related links
Craig's profile
Craig on YouTube
Matt O'Connor, English Democrats
Matt O'Connor is a founder of Fathers4Justice, whose members have staged public stunts such as throwing purple powder over Tony Blair in the House of Commons.
What The Times says:
"... When historians look back on British Society at the start of the third millennium they will accord a small but important chapter to the men in tights."
Related links
Vote English
O'Connor on YouTube
Winston Mackenzie, Independent
Winston Mackenzie is a former boxer.
He lost out on the Tory nomination to Boris Johnson and is running as an independent.
He has pledged to stop any expansion of the congestion charge zone and to be tough on crime.
"It is my desire to take it to the wire and see Ken retire."
Related links
Winston Mackenzie website
Watch Mackenzie rap on YouTube
Richard Barnbrook, BNP
Richard Barnbrook is a Royal Academy of Arts graduate and runs his own design firm.
Barnbrook is engaged to the lead dancer for the English National Ballet, Simone Clarke, who came under fire for her membership of the BNP last year.
Related links
BNP profile
Barnbrook on YouTube
