Sadiq Khan has been re-elected for a second term as London's Mayor, after seeing off competition from Shaun Bailey.
The Labour candidate took 1,206,034 votes after second preferences were taken into account, compared to Conservative Shaun Bailey at 977,601.
It was announced Mr Khan had won a second term at 11pm, amid earlier suggestions that the declaration would be delayed until Sunday.
The result will be a glimmer of hope to the Labour Party after it received a drubbing in local elections in England, losing control of a host of councils and a humiliating defeat in the Hartlepool by-election.
Mr Khan pledged to build a “better and brighter future” for the capital following the coronavirus pandemic in his victory speech from City Hall after being re-elected London mayor.
“I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart,” he said.
“I am deeply humbled by the trust Londoners have placed in me to continue leading the greatest city on earth.
“I promise to strain every sinew, help build a better and brighter future for London, after the dark days of the pandemic and to create a greener, fairer and safer city for all Londoners, to get the opportunities they need to fulfil their potential.
“I am proud to have won an overwhelming mandate today.”
Thank you London. It’s the absolute honour of my life to serve the city I love for another three years.
— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) May 8, 2021
I’ll leave no stone unturned to get our city back on its feet.
A brighter future is possible, and we’ll deliver it together. pic.twitter.com/kwA1awEten
Mr Khan was first elected mayor of the capital in 2016 in a landslide victory, breaking the Conservatives’ eight-year hold on City Hall.
In a speech from City Hall after he was defeated in the contest to be the capital’s mayor, Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey said Londoners had not “written him off”.
He said: “As I went through these, for me what was two years of campaigning, one feeling felt familiar to me, one challenge had always felt the same.
“And that was the feeling of being written off – by pollsters, by journalists, by fellow politicians.
“But it’s no surprise to me that Londoners didn’t write me off.”
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