Timeline of Boris' mayoralty
From Conservative Wiki
July 2008
July 24th: After Crossrail is given go-ahead by Parliament, Boris warns that the £16bn Crossrail line must not take priority over a £30bn upgrade of the capital's tube network.
July 21st: Policy Exchange Director and former journalist Anthony Browne is appointed as Boris' Policy Director. Browne says:
"It is a real wrench to leave Policy Exchange, but the opportunity to develop policy for the first Conservative administration in London for over a quarter of a century was irresistible. I have lived in London for twenty years, and loved its extraordinary vibrancy and diversity from the day I moved here."
July 17th: Nominates Sir Simon Milton as Deputy Mayor for Policy and Planning. Sir Simon announces his intention to stand down as a Westminster Councillor and as Chairman of the Local Government Association, once a successor has been nominated.
July 16th: Backs a new initiative to break the cycle of reoffending.
July 14th: Appoints Sir Simon Milton as Deputy Mayor for Policy and Planning. Sir Simon announces his intention to stand down as a Westminster Councillor and as Chairman of the Local Government Association, once a successor has been nominated.
July 10th: Delivers on election promise to increase the "Living Wage for London" to £7.45 per hour from £7.20, nearly 35% higher than the national minimum wage set by Government. It applies to 27 organisations including the GLA Group, the Met Police, Barclays bank and Ealing Council.
July 9th: Publishes ‘Planning a better London’ - a report setting out how he intends to improve the quality of life for Londoners through the capital’s planning system
July 8th: Scraps CO2 charge which would have charged owners of large family cars £25 a day to drive in the Central London Congestion Charge zone.
July 4th: Deputy Mayor Ray Lewis resigns over allegations about his past life. Lewis, a high profile youth worker and former prison governor, was forced to resign following allegations of improper conduct and financial irregularity. Boris launches competition to design new Routemaster bus and welcomes the creation of a new 75-strong knife crime police unit.
July 1st: Boris announces that a five-week public consultation on the future of the Western Extension Congestion Charge will begin in early September.
June 2008
June 27th: Boris uses a Veterans Day celebration to announce that injured war veterans in London are to receive free travel on the capital’s transport network, whether they are residents or visitors, in recognition of their service to the country.
June 26th: Businessman Sir Trevor Chinn appointed Chairman of the Mayor's Fund, Boris' flagship policy for promoting philanthropy.
June 22nd: Director of Political Strategy James McGrath is controversially forced to resign after a website quoted him saying we should let Carribeans leave London if they don't like it there. Boris launches City review of London's financial services.
June 18th: Sacks "Ken's wimmin", including the mother of two of Livingstone's children. The salaries of the five senior women are believed to total £400,000, and the role of 'Womens Advisor' was scrapped entirely.
June 16th: Boris asks Transport for London and the Metropolitan Police to press ahead with plans to crack down on illegal cabs, after taking part in a fact finding mission where he saw the extent of the problem for himself.
June 11th: Terrorism expert Dr Peter Neumann, of King's College London, says that after the prime minister, home secretary and defence secretary, Boris is the UK's most high profile politician and therefore one of the first things the police would have done after he took office was to ask him to stop cycling because of the terrorist threat.
June 10th: Appoints Steve Norris and Kulveer Ranger to the TfL Board, and Tim Parker to chair it from September. Signs a City Charter co-operation agreement with London Councils.
June 5th: Sends a letter to Hazel Blears asking for there to be a two-term limit for the role of Mayor of London, in order to avoid cronyism. There isn't any limit at the moment.
June 4th: First mayoral press conference. Boris formally announces he is stepping down as MP, responds to the Tube parties, and gives updates on the progress of several of his pledges. Boris also stated: "I deprecate the idea of London being a testbed, laboratory or petri dish" for national Tory policy.
May 2008
May 27th: Decides to chair the London Waste and Recycling Board in order to work with London's borough councils to boost recycling in the capital and reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill.
May 25th: Announces he will not renew the controversial oil deal with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez that provides cheap fuel for London's buses once the agreement ends later this year, although honours the half-price bus and tram fares for Londoners on income support that it funded.
May 22nd:[1] Appoints businessman Tim Parker as First Deputy Mayor and Chief Executive of the GLA Group. He will not be paid.
May 17th: Pledges to get a portrait of Her Majesty the Queen put up in City Hall as under Ken Livingstone there was no such tribute to our head of state.
May 15th: Appoints Kulveer Ranger as Transport adviser. The young sikh is well-known in Conservative circles and was involved in the launch of Oyster cards.
May 14th: Decides to renew his weekly Telegraph column. Paul Waugh dubbed him 'four jobs Johnson' in relation to this column, his Mayoralty, his chairmanship of Transport for London and the Metropolitan Police Authority.
May 8th: Launches audit into City Hall finances headed by Patience Wheatcroft. Appoints former BBC man Guto Harri as Communications Chief.
May 7th: Moves quickly to ban alcohol on public transport. Move has popular support but the Tube is mobbed by partygoers the night it comes into force.
May 6th: Announces "respect schooling" plans with new Deputy Mayor Ray Lewis, Director the Eastside Young Leaders Academy.
May 2nd: Boris Johnson wins the mayoralty. After first preferences Boris gained 43% of the vote and Ken Livingstone gained 37%. After second preferences Boris gained 53% of the vote and Ken Livingstone gained 47%. Meanwhile across the country the tories gained a 20 point lead.
| Candidate | Party | 1st Preference | 2nd Preference | Final |
| Johnson | CON | 1,043,761 | 124,977 | 1,168,738 |
| Livingstone | LAB | 893,877 | 135,089 | 1,028,966 |
| Paddick | LD | 236,685 | 641,412 | 878,097 |
| Berry | GREEN | 77,374 | 331,727 | 409,101 |
| Barnbrook | BNP | 69,710 | 128,609 | 198,319 |
| Batten | UKIP | 22,422 | 113,651 | 136,073 |
| Craig | CPA | 39,249 | 80,140 | 119,389 |
| O'Connor | ENGD | 10,695 | 73,538 | 84,233 |
| German | LL | 16,796 | 35,057 | 51,853 |
| McKenzie | Ind | 5,389 | 38,954 | 44,343 |
