Boris Johnshon's acceptance speech

Here is the full text of Boris Johnson’s acceptance speech after winning election to the office of Mayor of London:

“Thank you very much Mr Meyer, Anthony Meyer that is. I want to thank you, I want to thank the police of course, and my wife Marina and my family, and my utterly brilliant campaign team, the Conservative GLA candidates some of whom were extremely unlucky tonight, and of course the thousands of Conservative activists, the ward captains and knocker-uppers who did such an amazing job today, and indeed yesterday, rather.

“This has been a marathon election as you can tell with a record turnout and I think it has been good for politics and it has been good for London.

“I want to thank Sian (Berry, Green Party) and Lindsey (German, Left List) and Alan (Craig, Christian Peoples Party) and Gerard (Batten, UKIP), who have sometimes joined us for hustings, but mainly I want to thank my two colleagues in the strange triumvirate who have been trundling around London’s church halls and TV studios violently disputing the meaning of multiculturalism and the exact cost of conductors.

“On which point I think I’m going to declare victory.

“And I want to congratulate you Brian on your great common sense and decency with which you put your case and I do hope that it is not the end of our discussions about the police.

“And as for Ken, Mayor Livingstone, I think you have been a very considerable public servant and a distinguished leader of this city.

“You shaped the office of mayor. You gave it national prominence and when London was attacked on 7 July 2005 you spoke for London.

“And I can tell you that your courage and the sheer exuberant nerve with which you stuck it to your enemies, especially in New Labour, you have thereby earned the thanks and admiration of millions of Londoners, even if you think that they have a funny way of showing it today.

“And when we have that drink together which we both so richly deserve, I hope we can discover a way in which the mayoralty can continue to benefit from your transparent love of London, a city whose energy conquered the world and which now brings the world together in one city.”

“I do not for one minute believe that this election shows that London has been transformed overnight into a Conservative city but I do hope it does show that the Conservatives have changed into a party that can again be trusted after 30 years with the greatest, most cosmopolitan, multi-racial generous hearted city on earth in which there are huge and growing divisions between rich and poor.”

“And that brings me to my final thank you which is of course to the people of London.

“I would like to thank first the vast multitudes who voted against me – and I have met quite a few in the last nine months, not all of them entirely polite.

“I will work flat out from now on to earn your trust and to dispel some of the myths that have been created about me.

“And as for those who voted for me, I know there will be many whose pencils hovered for an instant before putting an X in my box and I will work flat out to repay and to justify your confidence.

“We have a new team ready to go in to City Hall. Where there have been mistakes we will rectify them. Where there are achievements we will build on them.

“Where there are neglected opportunities we will seize on them, and we will focus on the priorities of the people of London: cutting crime, improving transport, protecting green space, delivering affordable housing, giving taxpayers value for money in every one of the 32 boroughs.

“And I hope that everybody who loves this city will put aside party differences to try in the making of Greater London greater still. Let’s get cracking tomorrow and let’s have a drink tonight.”

In his speech at City Hall, Mr Paddick praised the outgoing mayor.

He said: “Ken has been an amazing mayor over the last eight years and I am sure a lot of Londoners are very grateful for what he has done.”

Mr Johnson’s team confirmed he would stand down as MP for Henley as soon as possible.

He is the first Conservative mayor since the post was created and comes in on a wave of record voting numbers.

At 45% of those registered, turnout was 1/5th up on 2004. This is the first time two million people have voted in the mayoral contest.

Mr Johnson’s win was delivered in part by London’s outer boroughs, where the Tory share was up in some areas by as much as 12%.

Mr Livingstone’s vote was also up in many Labour areas, but not by enough.

The record voting tally put back the announcement of the result from 8.30pm to nearly midnight as the electronic vote-counting machines struggled to vote with the numbers of ballots cast.

Many commentators dismissed Mr Johnson as a joke when the idea of his candidacy was first mooted.

But his pledges – among them to tackle crime on public transport, not to introduce a £25 congestion charge on higher-emission vehicles and to bring back the Routemaster proved popular.

Mr Livingstone proved unable to buck the national trend and suffered from a string of negative headlines and allegations of sleaze.

After second preferences were allocated, Mr Johnson achieved around 53% to Mr Livingstone’s 47%.

The result appeared to confirm the prediction made by the YouGov’s poll for the Evening Standard on Tuesday.

Mr Johnson said there is no discontinuity between the old Boris and the new Boris.

He said: “I was elected as new Boris and I will govern as new Boris, or whatever the phrase is.”

He said talk of a difference between the old and new Boris was an “existential question” which “drives me nuts”.

He continued: “I think what Londoners want is someone who is going to cut the cackle, deal with the problems they face, articulate the issues clearly and simply, deliver taxpayer value, cut crime and get more police out on the streets.

“I am going to go and see my association and work out an orderly timetable for a by-election.

“I have always said that I can’t do two jobs and I won’t.”

He said he was absolutely confident he would do a much better job than Mr Livingstone.

“I will be very proud if in four years’ time we can have achieved a significant reduction in crime, particularly in spaces for which the mayor is responsible, on the buses and the Tube.

“Boot me out with gusto if in four years’ time we haven’t pulled that off.

“I will be very proud if we have set up a mayoral fund for London, which will be a great thing for distributing cash.

“I want to lead a national debate about having a new airport in the Thames Estuary.

“I want to make sure we deliver the Olympics properly. I think it is absolutely vital for London and this country that we get it right and I am going to institute new financial controls to make sure that we do stop the gross cost overruns.”

Mr Johnson said that once the political message had been hammered home, it was possible to tell jokes, adding: ``Of course there will be the odd ill-chosen expression.''

He continued: “I think the smart thing for Labour to do would be to remove Gordon Brown and install (David) Miliband but I don’t think they will do it.”

When asked if he managed to get through the campaign without having a drink he said: “I want you to know that I have already had a drink but that has in no way impaired our conversation this evening.”

He said that he would be unveiling some of the people who would be working in his team in the next few days.

After being greeted at Tory HQ by Mr Cameron, Mr Johnson received a phone call of congratulation from his counterpart in New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

A spokesman for Mr Johnson said that the New York mayor “passed on congratulations and said he would happily work with him for the good of both cities”.