Mr Ken Livingstone was narrowly re-elected as Mayor of London today, some solace for Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party which suffered a drubbing in local election polls across England and Wales.
Mr Livingstone fought as a Labour candidate having won as an independent four years ago. But during the campaign, Mr Livingstone wasted few chances to assert his independence of Mr Blair, who invited him back into the party earlier this year.
Mr Livingstone polled a total of 828,380 first and second preference votes compared to his closest rival Mr Stephen Norris of the Conservative Party who received 667,178 first and second preferences.
