Sadiq Khan re-elected as Mayor as Laurence Fox loses deposit

Labour's Sadiq Khan arriving at City Hall, London, for the declaration of Mayor of London - Credit: PA

Labour’s Sadiq Khan has been re-elected as mayor of London in a closer contest for the capital than many had predicted.

Opinion polls had suggested his Conservative rival Shaun Bailey would be a distant second in the race for City Hall.

Khan took 1,206,034 votes after second preferences were taken into account (55.2%), compared to Bailey at 977,601 (44.8%).

Sian Berry for the Green Party came in third place with 197,976 votes – 7.8% of first preference votes.

Louisa Porritt for the Lib Dems followed with 111,716 votes (4.4%), failing to retain the £10,000 deposit paid.

Candidates have to achieve 5% of first-preference votes to have the money returned.

A majority of candidates on the 16-strong nomination paper also lost their deposits in the race, including The Reclaim Party’s Laurence Fox, who received 47,634 votes.

Other candidates who lost their deposit include UKIP’s Peter Gammons (20,604 votes), Let London Live’s Piers Corbyn (14,393 votes), YouTuber Niko Omilana (49,628 votes) and Count Binface (24,775 votes).

Richard Hewison for the Rejoin EU movement received 28,012 votes.

The lost deposits will be retained by London Elects and used towards the cost of organising the elections.

After the result was declared Khan tweeted: “If you voted for me, from the bottom of my heart — thank you. If you didn’t, please know that I’ll never ignore your voice, your concerns or your worries.

“I’ll always be a mayor for all Londoners — working to improve the lives of every single person in this city.”