WINNER BORIS VOWS TO CUT COUNCIL TAXES AND SLASH WASTE

First Published by: The Telegraph

Boris Johnson emphasised his Council Tax cutting.

The agenda today as he vowed a "huge effort" to help Londoners through tough times over the next four years. Mayor of London Boris Johnson leaves his home the morning after being re-elected. The re-elected Mayor said his programme was "avowedly Conservative with a big 'c' or a small 'c' and admitted he was "distinct" from the rest of his party. Mr Johnson's narrow victory over Labour's Ken Livingstone, declared just before midnight on Friday, was the only ray of sunshine in a dismal set of local election results for David Cameron's party. 

The Tories lost more than 400 council seats and polled 31 per cent of the national vote, leading to fresh criticism of the Prime Minister from the Tory right. Mr Johnson said the battle in London had been between two candidates "who are distinct from their parties to some extent." He added: "You saw that with both Ken Livingstone and to a certain extent with me." The Mayor defeated Mr Livingstone by 3 per cent, or 62,538 votes, once second preference ballots had been taken into account. 

He said in an interview: "My programme is absolutely, avowedly Conservative - with a big 'c' or a small 'c'. It's about cutting taxes, getting rid of useless government expenditure and focusing on the things that matter." He has vowed to cut Council Tax in the capital by 10 per cent over the next four years. By contrast, Mr Livingstone put forward a "champagne-socialist, Cuban cigar-rolling" agenda, Mr Johnson said. He declared he would "absolutely" not stand for parliament in the general election of 2015, pledging to serve a full four-year term as mayor. His victory has made him a stronger favourite to take over from Mr Cameron as Conservative leader. 

"There is no doubt that Londoners are going through tough times and it's going to take a huge amount of effort. I think the recession is going to start to end by the end of the year. I think things are going to start to turn round. But there's a massive amount of work to do. "I want to dedicate myself, consecrate myself, whatever verb you choose, entirely to that." Mr Livingstone said he was “truly sorry” to his supporters and Londoners who needed a Labour mayor. He announced that this election would be his last. Mr Johnson had won 971,931 first preference votes to Mr Livingstone’s 889,918, but with neither reaching the 50% mark, second preference votes were taken into account. 

The Labour candidate won 102,355 to his rival’s 82,880, but it was not enough to put him in front. In a poor result for the Liberal Democrats, which was replicated elsewhere in Britain, the party’s candidate Brian Paddick was beaten into third place by Jenny Jones of the Greens. Paddick won 91,774 votes to Jones’s 98,913. Independent Siobhan Benita was fifth with 83,914. Overall, Labour gained more than 800 council seats and seized control of 30 additional local authorities.  

The Liberal Democrats lost more than 330 council seats, taking their local representation to a historic low. Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, said he was “really sad” about the result. Lord Oakeshott, the Lib Dem peer, claimed that the party may not be able to fight the 2015 general election as a “nationwide, powerful, independent force”. Experts said that if the voting was replicated in a general election, Mr Miliband would secure a healthy Commons majority. However, Nationally, the Tories polled 31 per cent of the vote, compared with about 38 per cent for Labour. The Liberal Democrats polled 16 per cent. Senior Conservatives blamed the results on “midterm blues” and pointed out that Tony Blair lost more than 1,000 council seats in the late 1990s but still won a landslide majority in the 2001 general election. 

Mr Cameron said: “I’m sorry for the hard-working Conservative councillors who have lost their seats, obviously against a difficult national backdrop. “These are difficult times, and there aren’t easy answers. What we have to do is to take difficult decisions to deal with the debt, the deficit and the broken economy that we inherited. We’ll go on making those decisions because we’ve got to do the right thing for our country.” Mr Miliband embarked on a brisk national tour, visiting Birmingham, Worcester and Southampton. “The most important thing is that we’ve had people right across Britain putting their faith in Labour,” he said. “The process of change in Labour has just begun. We’ve got more to do and I know that.” 

Aides hailed the result as a turning point in his leadership, while there were calls in the Tory party for its leaders to adopt more Right-wing policies to appeal to the party’s grassroots. Gerald Howarth, a defence minister who served in Margaret Thatcher’s government, said policies such as gay marriage should be rethought. “A lot of Conservatives have written to me saying, 'I am a lifelong Conservative, there is no mandate for this, why is this being proceeded with?’ ” 

Mark Pritchard, a senior member of the backbench 1922 Committee, said it would be “misguided” to blame the losses purely on “midterm blues”. “No.10 need to listen to their Conservative backbenchers and the Conservative Party grass roots more often, and to their minority and junior Coalition partners less often.” Mr Clegg and Mr Cameron will attempt to shore up support for the Coalition with a rare joint appearance on Tuesday to stress the importance of a united policy to cut Britain’s deficit.

On Wednesday, the Queen’s Speech will disclose details of the Government’s policy agenda for the next year. There will be new plans for a higher, simpler flat-rate state pension and tougher sanctions for criminals.

READ WHAT: ERIC PICKLES ‘SECRETARY OF STATE’ SAYS ABOUT OVER-CHARGED COUNCIL TAX.

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