Conservatives retain 21-year South West London hold while Khan secures second term as London mayor for Labour

It's been an exciting week for UK politics with this morning's national headlines dominated largely by the SNP and Labour's internal shake up. Yesterday saw the Conservative party retain its 21-year hold of the London Assembly South West constituency seat while Sadiq Khan won a second term as London's Mayor.

In SW London, Conservative candidate Nick Rogers will be taking over from Tony Arbour, who had held his seat in the London Assembly South West constituency since 2000.

Rogers said: "This is the absolute honour of my life to be elected as the Conservative assembly member for South West London.

"I'd like to thank my fellow candidates, you are all noble public servants.

"I also want to thank Tony Arbour, my predecessor, who has honourably served South West London for 21 years and is now going into a well-deserved retirement."

"Very importantly I need to thank my husband Liam who has been my rock, he's been my chief advisor, he's been my confessor, my shoulder to cry on.

"He's brought me those all important post-campaigning gin and tonics, he's been fantastic, so thank you, Liam, I love you so much."

The Lib Dems made strong progress since the 2016 elections, gaining 13.9% of the vote share over the past 5 years, while Conservatives actually lost 7.5% of its share and Labour lost 3.2%.

The Green Party also increased its vote share, Andree Frieze increasing numbers by 1.4% compared to 2016.

She said on Twitter: "Massive thanks to everyone who voted for me, @RTGreenParty and @sianberry on Thursday.

"The Greens are definitively the third party in London (if not in the south west)."

Lib Dem candidate Gareth Roberts congratulated his rival on Twitter: "Congratulations to @NJROnline on his win in the SW Constituency.

"And massive thanks to all those brilliant @LondonLibDems who campaigned for me to get the astonishing result - moving from third place to second and doubling the number of votes cast in 2016 - 30K to £61K."

London Assembly South West constituency candidates were:

Candice Amelia Atterton - Labour and Co-operative Party

Sylvia Da Barca - Let London Live

Dominique Day - ReformUK - London Deserves Better

Andree Michelle Frieze - Green Party

Gareth David Roberts - Liberal Democrats

Nicholas James Rogers - Conservative Party Candidate

Mayor of London

In the race for Mayor, Khan beat Conservative rival Shaun Bailey

with 55.2% of the popular vote.

Second choice votes had to be counted as no candidate secured a majority in the first round.

Bailey secured 44.8% of the first and second round votes, while Green Party candidate Sian Berry came third with 7.8% and Lib Dem Luisa Porritt came fourth with 4.4%.

Although Khan won with a 228,000 majority, having received 1,206,034 votes, he failed to reach his record-setting vote total of 2016.

Bailey on the other hand managed to increase the Conservative vote share by 1.6% to 977,601.

Khan received 74,854 votes, 4,999 less than his Conservative challenger.

The Green Party broke its record in an election for the Mayor of London, with three London assembly members and 650,000 1st and 2nd preference votes for candidate Sian Berry.

Speaking at City Hall late last night the re-elected Mayor said: "I am deeply humbled by the trust Londoners have placed in me to continue leading the greatest city on earth.

"There is far more that unites us than divides us.

"We simply must use this moment of national recovery to heal those damaging divisions.

"I'm a Londoner through and through, this city is in my blood.

"But I'm also a patriotic Englishman and a Brit who's proud to represent this nation's great capital.

"This virus doesn't care whether you live in London or Liverpool, whether you're a Brexiteer or a Remainer or what you think it means to be woke.

"We're only defeating it by acting together and by helping each other.

"We must capture that spirit of unity and co-operation to build a better and brighter future and it's in this spirit I promise to lead London over the next three years.

"We must all work together to build a brighter, greener and more equal future for London and for our entire country after the pandemic.

"Most importantly, thank you to my fellow Londoners for the trust you've placed in me once again today – it's a privilege to serve."

He added: "I will always be a mayor for all Londoners, working to improve the lives of every single person in this city.

"The results of the elections around the UK shows our country, and even our city, remains deeply divided.

"The scars of Brexit have yet to heal.

"A crude culture war is pushing us further apart."

He continued: "Economic inequality is getting worse both within London and in different parts of our country.

"As we seek to confront the enormity of the challenge ahead, and as we endeavour to rebuild from this pandemic, we must use this moment of national recovery to heal those damaging divisions."

Shaun Bailey said he had been 'written off' by pollsters, journalists and other politicians but not by Londoners.

He congratulated Khan but said he hoped the re-elected mayor would not 'blame everything on the government'.

More than six million people were registered to vote in yesterday's election.

The mayoral election normally takes place every four years but this one was postponed due to the pandemic. Yesterday's election was first scheduled to take place in May 2020.

Nineteen candidates stood in The Mayoral elections: