The
Deputy Mayor of London is a member of the
London Assembly appointed by the
Mayor of London in accordance with the
Greater London Authority Act 1999.
Under Ken Livingstone: 2000–2008
The
2000 London mayoral election was won by
Ken Livingstone, who ran as an independent after being expelled from the Labour Party. He announced that he would rotate the position of deputy mayor equally between the four parties represented in the London Assembly (
Conservative,
Labour,
Liberal Democrat and
Green). He offered the role to
Nicky Gavron of the Labour Party for the first year. After some political manoeuvring , she accepted.
However in
2001, Ken Livingstone decided not to offer the role to the Conservatives, claiming it would be disruptive, so Nicky Gavron retained the post. In
2002 the Liberal Democrats were asked to nominate a candidate but declined, saying that it would be better to scrutinise the mayor from an independent position. Again Nicky Gavron remained. In
2003, the Greens accepted an offer to nominate a deputy mayor and selected
Jenny Jones, who became London's second deputy mayor.
Nicky Gavron was originally chosen as the Labour candidate for the
2004 London mayoral election but she stepped aside when Ken...
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