![Johnson, a journalist turned politician, captured London's City Hall for the Conservatives [AFP]](http://mwcnews.net/images/stories/UK/2/3/4/5/6/Johnson.jpg "Johnson, a journalist turned politician, captured London's City Hall for the Conservatives [AFP]") | | Johnson, a journalist turned politician, captured London's City Hall for the Conservatives [AFP] |
Britain's governing Labour Party has lost control of the London mayoral office, two days after the party suffered its worst showing in local elections for 40 years.
Labour candidate Ken Livingstone - the mayor of London since 2000 - lost to Boris Johnson, the Conservative party candidate, according to official results released on Saturday.
Johnson, a journalist turned politician, seized London's City Hall and control of its 11bn pound ($22bn) budget.
Brian Paddick, the mayoral candidate for the Liberal Democrats, finished a distant third in the vote.
Labour's losses are a major blow to Gordon Brown's government, which has faced criticism over rising fuel, food and energy costs and falling house prices.
The government's recent economic record and tax policies have also proved unpopular with voters.
Poll results
In the local polls, held only in England and Wales on Thursday, the Tories took a 44 per cent share of the national vote. The results would be enough to secure them a sizeable parliamentary majority if they were to be repeated at a general election. The Liberal Democrats took 25 per cent and Labour 24 per cent, the BBC said.
With results from all 159 local councils counted, the Conservatives controlled 12 more at 65, Labour lost control of nine to leave 18, and the Liberal Democrats were up one at 12.
Worryingly for Brown, Labour lost seats in key heartlands such as south Wales, while the Conservatives made gains beyond their southern England power base in the north.
With all the results counted from local councils in England and Wales, Labour had lost 331 councillors and the Conservatives had gained 252.
Analysts had said that a loss of more than 200 councillors for Labour would be a very bad result for the party.
The treasury will be under pressure to come up with new measures to restore Labour's strong economic card.
BNP victory
The London assembly election results also showed the British National Party (BNP), a far-right party, make an electoral breakthrough by gaining its first seat.
Richard Barnbrook, a Royal Academy-trained former artist, was elected to the 25-member body via the proportional representation system.
The result means he can now take up a seat at City Hall to scrutinise the mayor's decisions.
Barnbrook, who leads the BNP group on Barking and Dagenham Council in east London, also stood as the party's candidate for London mayor.
He came fifth out of 10 candidates with 69,710 first preference votes, just 7,664 less than the Green Party's candidate, who came fourth.
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Tags: London UK's Labour
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