Thirteen people are in the race for the top job at City Hall on 2nd May

The full list of candidates to become the next mayor of London have been revealed.

In total, 13 people will be on the ballot paper when the vote takes place on Thursday, 2nd May.

Labour candidate Sadiq Khan is seeking an historic third term as mayor, having served in the role since 2016. He has championed his universal free school meals programme and the fact that he has frozen Transport for London (TfL) single pay-as-you-go fares five times during his mayoralty, “saving Londoners hundreds of pounds”. Khan said in 2023 that he was standing again “so we can finish the job of reforming the police service, we can finish the job of cleaning the air in our city, we can finish the job of the post-pandemic recovery, we can finish the job to build far more genuinely affordable homes that Londoners desperately need – and much more”.

Conservative candidate Susan Hall has served as a member of the London Assembly since 2017 and as a councillor in Harrow since 2006. Hall has pledged to remove the outer London expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) “on day one” of her mayoralty, arguing that it has “been absolutely devastating for people who cannot afford to go to work, get to the hospital or visit their family”. She has said that her campaign will be focused on delivering “safer streets and more money in your pocket”. The candidate has also promised to invest £200m into the Met Police and to set up specialist units within the police to tackle burglaries, robberies, and thefts.

Green Party candidate Zoë Garbett is a councillor in Hackney. She pledges to de-prioritise the policing of cannabis and to make public transport more affordable – including free bus travel for under-22s. A vocal opponent of the Silvertown Tunnel’s construction, she says it should be repurposed for public transport and is a “blight” on Khan’s climate record. Garbett would also lobby for rent control powers, boost council housing and address “huge failings” in the Met Police. The Greens came third in 2021’s mayoral election, winning 7.8% of first preference votes.

Liberal Democrat candidate R ob Blackie says he will “get the police to focus on serious crimes and earn the respect of Londoners”. He believes the Met is “wasting time on low level drug offences like laughing gas” and should be freed up “to investigate rapes and serious sexual offences properly”. He has pledged to help undocumented Londoners by providing legal support to secure their British status, as well as cleaning up the capital’s rivers and boosting solar power on rooftops. The Lib Dems came fourth in 2021, securing 4.4 per cent of first preference votes and losing their £10,000 deposit.

Reform UK candidate Howard Cox is founder of the FairFuelUK campaign. He has pledged to scrap the entire Ulez and “extensively increase policing visibility 24/7 to cut crime and make streets safer for all”. He would also “massively increase affordable housing numbers, particularly for young and low-income families”.

Count Binface Party candidate Count Binface is again throwing his “lid into the mayoral ring”. In 2021’s contest, he promised to rename London Bridge “after Phoebe Waller” and for no shop to be allowed to sell croissants for more than £1.

Independent candidate Natalie Campbell was originally longlisted to be the Tory candidate, but failed to make the party’s shortlist. Not long afterwards, she announced that he would be running as an independent, setting out her stall as a “centrist, middle of the road candidate”. She has said she would look to progress the Bakerloo line extension into south-east London, and would create more ‘mayoral development corporations’ to ensure the right homes are built “in the right places”.

Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate Amy Gallagher says she will “push back on woke ideology”. She also pledges to “depoliticise the police” and make transport free for under-25s.

Independent candidate Tarun Ghulati, an investment banker running, has pledged to “get London moving again”, while strengthening community cohesion and improving policing. He has promised to completely scrap the Ulez and to remove the congestion charge on weekends, as well as pledging to re-open closed police stations in areas with high crime rates.

Independent candidate Andreas Michli is a gym owner from Haringey who has promised to provide free gym memberships for all Londoners, paid for by City Hall. He has also said that he would impose “significantly higher physical standards” for new Me Police recruits, which would be “closer to military standards”. Police officers would also all be trained “in defensive martial arts”. He has proposed abolishing the capital’s net zero targets.

London Real candidate Brian Rose is another 2021 candidate who is standing for a second time. He received 1.2% of votes cast last time out. Rose has pledged to ensure “freedom of speech is protected” and wants to “make London a ‘crypto-first’ city” by “positioning it as world leader for blockchain technology”. He has also said he would privatise Transport for London and abolishing the Ulez.

Animal Welfare Party candidate Femy Amin says she is standing for “creating a fair and inclusive London, and to be a strong voice for animals and the environment”.

Finally, Britain First candidate Nick Scanlon says he is standing to become mayor because “over the last few decades Londoner’s [sic] have watched on in horror as their once relatively tranquil and cohesive city has been transformed into something completely unrecognisable”.

Not included in the list is Reclaim Party leader Laurence Fox, who did not file the correct paperwork on time, while previously announced independent candidates who have since pulled out of the race include Rayhan Haque, Serge Crowbolder and Shyam Batra. Rumoured candidate George Galloway, leader of the Workers Party of Britain, decided not enter after becoming an MP in Rochdale last month.

To read an explainer for the City Hall 2024 elections, click here.

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