Boris Johnson served as mayor of London from 1 May 2008 until 5 May 2016, being elected in 2008 and reelected in 2012. During his mayoralty, Johnson oversaw the preparations and hosting of the 2012 Summer Olympics and oversaw the cycle hire scheme. He also introduced the New Routemaster buses and the Thames cable car, while promoting the proposed Garden Bridge over the River Thames; the project was later abandoned after Johnson left office. Johnson also banned alcohol consumption on much of London's public transport.
Selected as the Conservative candidate for the London mayoral election of 2008, Johnson defeated Labour incumbent Ken Livingstone and resigned his seat as MP for Henley in parliament. During his first term as mayor, he banned alcohol consumption on public transport, introduced the New Routemaster buses and cycle hire scheme, and championed London's financial sector. During his first term, Johnson was embroiled in several personal scandals, but remained a popular figure in London with a strong celebrity status. In the 2012 mayoral election, he was re-elected mayor, again defeating Livingstone. During his second term he oversaw the 2012 Summer Olympics. In the 2015 general election he was elected MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, a position he held from 2015 to 2023, and stepped down as mayor in 2016. He was succeeded as mayor by Sadiq Khan of the Labour Party.
Johnson left office still popular with the people of London, with 52% of Londoners believing he did a "good job" as mayor while only 29% believing he did a "bad job". Following his mayoralty, Johnson became a prominent figure in the successful Vote Leave campaign to withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Union, served as foreign secretary under Theresa May from 2016 to 2018, and served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022.
2008 mayoral election
In July 2007, Boris Johnson announced his candidacy to be the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London in the 2008 mayoral election and in September was selected after gaining 79% of the vote in a public London-wide primary.
Johnson's mayoral campaign focused on reducing youth crime, making public transport safer, and replacing the articulated buses with an updated version of the AEC Routemaster. Targeting the Conservative-leaning suburbs of outer London, it capitalised on perceptions that the Labour Mayoralty had neglected them in favour of inner London. His campaign emphasised his popularity, even among those who opposed his policies, with opponents complaining that a common attitude among voters was: "I'm voting for Boris because he is a laugh". The campaign of Labour incumbent Ken Livingstone portrayed Johnson as an out-of-touch toff and bigot, citing racist and homophobic language used in his column; Johnson responded that these quotes had been taken out of context and were meant as satire.
In the election, Johnson received 43% and Livingstone 37% of first-preference votes; when second-preference votes were added, Johnson proved victorious with 53% to Livingstone's 47%. Johnson then announced his resignation as MP for Henley.
First term Johnson was sworn in as mayor on 3 May 2008. Settling into the City Hall mayoral office, Johnson's first official engagement was an appearance at the Sikh celebrations for Vaisakhi in Trafalgar Square. He received criticism during the early weeks of his administration, largely because he was late for two official functions in his first week on the job, and because after three weeks he went on holiday to Turkey. In July 2008, Johnson visited the closing ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where he offended his Chinese hosts with his attire by failing to button his suit jacket.
While Johnson made no major changes to the mayoral system as developed by Livingstone, he reversed several measures implemented by Livingstone's administration.
During the first Mayoral term, Johnson was perceived as having moved leftward on certain issues, for instance supporting the London Living Wage and endorsing an amnesty for illegal migrants. He tried placating critics who had deemed him a bigot by appearing at London's gay pride parade and praising ethnic minority newspapers. In 2012, he banned London buses from displaying the adverts of Core Issues Trust (a Christian group) which compared homosexuality to an illness. In August 2008, Johnson broke from the traditional protocol of those in public office not publicly commenting on other nations' elections by endorsing Barack Obama for the presidency of the United States.
In 2014, former mayor Ken Livingstone said in an interview with the New Statesman that, while he had once feared Johnson as "the most hardline right-wing ideologue since Thatcher", over the course of Johnson's mayoralty he had instead concluded he was "a fairly lazy tosser who just wants to be there while doing very little work."
Staffing of administration Rather than bringing a team of assistants with him when he assumed the mayoral office, as Livingstone had done, Johnson instead assembled his team over the six months after he took office. Those in City Hall who were deemed too closely allied to Livingstone's administration had their employment terminated. Johnson appointed Tim Parker to be first Deputy Mayor, but after Parker began taking increasing control at City Hall and insisted that all staff report directly to him, Johnson dismissed him. As a result of these problems, many in the Conservative Party initially distanced themselves from Johnson's administration, fearing that it would be counter-productive to achieving a Conservative victory in the 2010 general election.
In June 2008, Johnson fired his chief political director James McGrath over offensive remarks McGrath made about Afro-Caribbean people. In July, Johnson fired Ray Lewis, one of his deputy mayors, over a false magistrate claim.
Policing
Johnson appointed himself chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), and in October 2008 successfully pushed for the resignation of Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair after the latter was criticised for allegedly handing contracts to friends and for his handling of the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes. This earned Johnson great respect among Conservatives, who interpreted it as his first act of strength. Johnson resigned as MPA chairman in January 2010, but throughout his mayoralty was highly supportive of the Metropolitan Police, particularly during the controversy surrounding the death of Ian Tomlinson. Overall crime in London fell during his administration, but his claim that serious youth crime had decreased was shown to be false, and he acknowledged the error. Similarly, his claim that Metropolitan Police numbers had increased was also characterised as untrue, but the fact-checkers at Full Fact say that both Johnson's and his critics' positions are defensible."Police numbers under Boris Johnson’s time as Mayor", Full Fact (26 Jul 2019), accessed 24 September 2020. He was also criticised for his response to the 2011 London riots; holidaying with his family in British Columbia when the rioting broke out, he did not immediately return to London, only returning 48 hours after it had begun and addressing Londoners 60 hours thereafter. Upon visiting shopkeepers and residents affected by the riots in Clapham, he was booed and jeered by elements within the crowds.
After Johnson took office, he had the MPA incense stop and search. A 2016 report commissioned by the Home Office found "no discernible crime-reducing effects" from this action.
Preparations for the 2012 Summer Olympics Three months after his election Johnson attended the 2008 Summer Olympics closing ceremony at Beijing in August 2008 to receive the Olympic Flag from the Mayor of Beijing. Under Livingstone, London had been successful in its bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, securing the games in 2005. Johnson's role in the proceedings was to be the co-chair of an Olympic board which oversaw the games. Johnson continued preparations for the 2012 Olympic Games, which had been initiated under Livingstone, and was even accused of taking credit for some of the efforts of Livingstone.
Johnson commissioned for a landmark tower to be constructed in the Olympic Park. This would result in the construction of ArcelorMittal Orbit.
Relations with financial sector and the media Johnson championed London's financial sector and denounced what he saw as "banker bashing" following the 2008 financial crisis, condemning the anti-capitalist Occupy London movement that appeared in 2011. He spent much time with those involved in the financial services, and criticised the government's 50p tax rate for higher earners. He collected donations from the city's wealthy for a charitable enterprise, the Mayor's Fund, which he had established to aid disadvantaged youths. It initially announced that it would raise £100 million, but by 2010 it had only spent £1.5 million. He also retained extensive personal contacts throughout the British media, which resulted in widespread favourable press coverage of his administration. In turn he remained largely supportive of his friends in the media – among them Rupert Murdoch – during the News International phone hacking scandal.
The formation of the Forensic Audit Panel was announced on 8 May 2008. The panel is tasked with monitoring and investigating financial management at the London Development Agency and the Greater London Authority. Johnson's announcement was criticised by Labour for the perceived politicisation of this nominally independent panel, who asked whether the appointment of key Johnson allies to the panel – "to dig dirt on Ken Livingstone" – was "an appropriate use of public funds". The head of the panel, Patience Wheatcroft, was married to a Conservative councillorThe Media Guardian 100 – 87 Patience Wheatcroft. The Guardian (London). 17 July 2006. and three of the four remaining panel members also had close links to the Conservatives: Stephen Greenhalgh (Conservative Leader of Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council), Patrick Frederick (Chairman of Conservative Business Relations for South East England and Southern London) and Edward Lister (Conservative Leader of Wandsworth London Borough Council).
Work for The Telegraph During the electoral campaign, Johnson had confided to Brian Paddick that he was unsure how he would retain his then lifestyle while relying upon the mayoral salary of £140,000 a year. To resolve this problem, he agreed to continue his Telegraph column alongside his mayoral job, thus earning a further £250,000 a year. His team believed that this would cause controversy, and made him promise to donate a fifth of his Telegraph fee to a charitable cause providing bursaries for students. Johnson resented this, and ultimately did not pay a full fifth. Controversy erupted when he was questioned about his Telegraph fee on BBC's HARDtalk; here, he referred to the £250,000 as "chicken feed", something that was widely condemned, given that this was roughly 10 times the average yearly wage for a British worker.
Transportation Johnson ended the oil deal that Livingstone had made with Venezuela, in which London provided its expertise in transport and urban planning for subsidised diesel fuel, which had helped to allow London to provide low-income residents with half-priced bus and tram fares. The oil deal had been controversial.
Early in his mayoralty, Johnson ended the half-yearly inspections of black cabs, but this measure was reinstated three years later. In November 2008, Johnson outlined a transport infrastructure investment plan that included the cancelation of the Thames Gateway Bridge.