Triumphant Boris is sworn in as mayor – and makes sweeping pledges on crime, housing and the congestion charge

Last updated at 16:10pm on 3rd May 2008

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Boris Johnson was officially sworn in as London mayor at City Hall this afternoon.

He was elected last night, capping a catastrophic day for Labour in the local elections and leaving Gordon Brown facing a desperate fight for survival.

The Old Etonian handed David Cameron a stunning political triumph by ousting veteran mayor Ken Livingstone.

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The new mayor of London delivers his acceptance speech today at City Hall

Pledge: the new mayor has promised to build on Red Ken’s ‘outstanding’ achievements

Mr Johnson won with 1,168,738 first and second preference votes, compared with Mr Livingstone’s 1,028,966 on a record turnout.

As he arrived on stage the new mayor did not disappoint by stumbling in true Boris-gaffe style as he began his acceptance speech.

Mr Johnson today pledged to “lead the fightback” against violent crime in the capital as he signed the declaration of acceptance of his new role.

Mr Johnson, who defeated Labour’s Ken Livingstone by six points last night to become mayor, said that the number one issue facing London was the “tragically self-destructive” behaviour of some of its young children.

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Boris Johnson is sworn in as London mayor during a formal ceremony at City Hall today

He also pledged to make good on campaign promises to build affordable homes, protect gardens against development, improve bus services and crack down on minor crime on public transport.

The formal signing ceremony at City Hall came just hours after a 15-year-old boy was found stabbed to death in a stairwell in south London – the latest victim of a wave of knife-crime among young people in the capital.

Describing the boy’s death as “tragic”, Mr Johnson said: “I think this problem of kids growing up without boundaries and getting lost in tragic and self-destructive choices is the number one issue we face in this city.

“It is the job of me as Mayor to lead the fightback against it and that is what I want to do and I hope you will all join me in doing it.”

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Ready for action: Boris heads off to City Hall this morning

Without giving full details of his intentions, Mr Johnson said he would “reform and improve” the congestion charge on drivers entering central London, including by making it possible for motorists to pay their charge on account at the end of the month.

He said he would hold discussions shortly on how to clamp down on disorder on buses and trains, which he said was the single policy which most clearly resonated with the public during his election campaign.

“We are going to double the size of the safer transport teams to get people the sense of safety and security on the buses that they deserve,” he said.

“I think there is a vital necessity to drive out so-called minor crime and disorder as a way of driving out more serious crime.”

Mr Johnson was attacked during the mayoral campaign as a divisive figure who would be unable to represent London’s large ethnic minority population.

But he insisted that he wants to be a unifying figure, bringing representatives of all the city’s diverse communities into his administration.

He said: “I want, insofar as it is possible, to work with everybody from across all communities in London.

“It is vital for a Mayor of London to bring people together and to unite London and to serve every community in London impartially and to make sure we have in my administration representatives of all communities, which is what we will have.”

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Thumbs up: Boris celebrates his victory last night

The election of London’s first Conservative Mayor is expected to lead to a turnover of senior advisers at City Hall, and Mr Johnson said he would name some of his key aides over the next few days.

Saying that he wanted the Greater London Authority to concentrate on value for money, he left little doubt that he will slim down the staff he inherits from Mr Livingstone.

And he warned that he would have little patience with anyone who begrudged the change of power at City Hall: “If there are any dogs in the manger, I will have those dogs humanely euthanased.”

Repeating his praise for Mr Livingstone’s achievements, Mr Johnson made clear he did not intend to lead a partisan administration following his relatively narrow victory by a margin of 53 per cent to 47 per cent.

He said: “I want to build on the achievements of the last administration and I want us to put aside any personal rancour or ideological disputes.

“Let’s all put them aside and work together and build on the very considerable achievements of the last Mayor of London and make sure we create a London that is greater still.”

Mr Johnson does not formally receive the seals of office from Mr Livingstone until midnight tomorrow, and he joked that this would give the outgoing administration time to cover up anything it wanted to keep under wraps.

“Until that time, I imagine there are shredding machines quietly puffing and panting away in various parts of the building, and quite right too,” he quipped.

“Heaven knows what we shall uncover in the course of the next few days.”

True to his bumbling image, Mr Johnson was rarely far from a pratfall during his speech, several times raising laughter from his audience.

He had to ask what the date was before signing the acceptance document, muddled up the name of the architect responsible for City Hall’s distinctive design and momentarily avoided saying he wanted to give voters “more bang for their buck”, before changing his mind and saying it anyway.

After his speech, Mr Johnson went into private talks with Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair and Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy.

Ron Dobson, the commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, was also at the private meeting which discussed the role of Police Community Support Officers in the city and the issue of bus passes for children.

Earlier Mr Johnson was received with a standing ovation as he arrived to sign the declaration of acceptance.

Around 400 supporters turned out to witness the formal signing ceremony at City Hall and see Mr Johnson deliver his first speech as mayor.

As he entered the room they cheered and chanted his name and then applauded him throughout his speech.

Before his arrival at City Hall crowds of supporters – and curious tourists – had gathered outside, some waiting all morning to catch a glimpse of the city’s new mayor.

Chris Jordan, 40, from Vauxhall, south London said she had waited many years to see Mr Johnson become mayor and had stayed up to see the results.

Ms Jordan said: “I’m delighted, I couldn’t be more pleased.”

Asked why she thought Mr Johnson would make a good mayor, she said: “He is very charismatic and highly intelligent as well as funny. I think there’s a lot more to Boris than people realise, but they will soon see.”

Prime Minister Gordon Brown will tomorrow subject himself to a grilling in a set of TV interviews in an effort to kickstart Labour’s fightback following its woeful performance in London and local elections.

The party’s 24 per cent projected share of the vote on Thursday thrust it into third place behind the Liberal Democrats and would cost as many as 200 seats if repeated at a general election.

Labour MPs have already given notice that Mr Brown must step up his performance, with one backbencher saying he had just six months to get a grip on events.

Mr Brown is thought to have decided against a swift Cabinet reshuffle in response to the bloodbath at the polls, but the pressure is on him to start turning the situation around before the May 22 by-election in Crewe & Nantwich, which would be vulnerable to the kind of swings seen over the past 24 hours.

Backbench critics today called on the PM to drop his plans for 42-day pre-charge detention for terror suspects, which they fear will cause another damaging row when it returns to the Commons in June.

David Winnick, who led a successful rebellion against Tony Blair’s plans for 90-day detention, said that the “divisive” proposals were “the last thing Labour needs” after its drubbing at the polls.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw insisted that Labour can still go on to win a historic fourth term in Government, but appeared to indicate that Mr Brown would now be forced to wait until the last minute in 2010 to go to the country.

“I am very clear that the situation in two years’ time will be different from where we are today,” Mr Straw told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“There are plenty of Governments that lost the degree of vote that we lost in London and then went on to win a General Election after that.

“When you come to a General Election what people are doing is applying themselves directly to who should form the next Government and I think the choices will be very different from what has unquestionably been partly a protest vote in the mid-term.”

Mr Straw said that voters had wanted to “punish” Mr Brown – before hurriedly correcting himself to say “punish us” – for the scrapping of the 10p tax rate.

“They wanted to punish him – or punish us – in respect of the 10p,” he said.

Mr Straw warned that the Government must make “fewer mistakes”, but at the same time he stressed that it should not allow itself to be blown off course.

“What we have to do is actually maintain the strategy that we have followed because it is a strategy that has produced much more effective management as a whole over the last 11 years,” he said.

Minister for London Tessa Jowell, who led Labour’s campaign in the capital, told Sky News: “The voters have delivered the strongest possible message to us.

“They have shown us a pretty tough yellow card, and it is our job now to respond to that.”

Overall, Labour lost more than 300 council seats in this week’s elections, while the Conservatives made gains across the country from Southampton in the South, through the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales, to Bury in the North West.

Mr Johnson claimed that Mr Brown had now become a liability for Labour and that they would be better off with Foreign Secretary David Miliband as leader.

“The smart thing for Labour to do would be quietly to remove Gordon Brown and install Miliband, is my view, but I don’t think they’ll do it,” he told Today.

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