Ken Livingstone: GLC leader & London’s first mayor

Ken Livingstone’s 50 years in politics saw him elected to almost every level of government in the capital. He was a local councillor, an MP, leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) and London’s mayor.

As mayor between 2000 and 2008, he introduced the Congestion Charge, successfully bid for the 2012 Olympics and handled the aftermath of the 2005 terrorist attacks.

As leader of the GLC in the early 1980s, Livingstone became a figure of hate for the political right, dubbed “Red Ken” for his socialist image.

But Livingstone also clashed with the Labour party and was suspended multiple times. In 2017, he resigned from the party after being accused of antisemitism.

Livingstone was born in Streatham, south London, in 1945, the last year of the Second World War. His mother was a dancer. His father was a ship's master in the Merchant Navy.

He grew up in the borough of Lambeth, south London, in a Conservative-voting, working-class family.

After failing his grammar school entry exam – the 11-plus – Livingstone went to Tulse Hill Comprehensive, leaving at 17 to become a lab technician at the Royal Marsden Hospital.

Livingstone was a Labour party member by his early 20s and was elected to Lambeth Borough Council in 1971.

At that time, London was managed by the Greater London Council (GLC). The GLC was established in 1963 as the city-wide government responsible for London’s newly formed 32 boroughs.

In 1973 Livingstone, aged 27, was elected to be one of Lambeth’s two members on the GLC. When Labour won control of the GLC in 1981, Livingstone was chosen as its leader.

His policies included Fares Fair, which cut transport fares by 25% by increasing tax rates. He was ahead of his time in emphasising the rights of women, gay people and ethnic minorities. He also introduced a body to monitor the Metropolitan Police.

The Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher opposed the GLC’s ideology. The party’s manifesto challenged its existence, calling it “wasteful”.

In 1986, the government abolished the GLC, passing its responsibilities to central government, the boroughs and a new set of London-wide bodies.

As its end approached, the GLC organised a Farewell Festival of art, theatre and music. There’s a programme in our collection. At a fireworks display on the South Bank, Livingstone said: “The last five years of my life have been the best, and that's because you've been such a bloody wonderful city.”

Over his career, Livingstone’s policies, leadership and controversial statements drew plenty of criticism from across the political spectrum, including the Labour party.

As leader of the GLC in the 1980s, the fiercest criticism came from politicians and newspapers who supported the right-wing ideas of Margaret Thatcher.

Livingstone was at the opposite end of the political spectrum to the prime minister. He invited members of the Irish republican party Sinn Féin to London and supported striking miners. He campaigned against the use of nuclear weapons. He also displayed unemployment figures, which he blamed Thatcher for, on a huge sign on the top of County Hall, the home of the GLC.

Some newspapers called Livingstone “Red Ken” – linking him with the traditional colour of socialism and communism. The satirical magazine Private Eye ran a cartoon referring to him as “Ken Leninspart”.

The Sun newspaper called Livingstone “the most odious man in Britain” when he seemed to express sympathy for the Irish Republican Army (IRA), a group who terrorised Londoners with its deadly bomb attacks between the 1970s and 1990s.

After the abolition of the GLC, Livingstone became the Labour MP for Brent East in north-west London. He remained an MP from 1987 to 2001, but his divisive GLC legacy left him on the margins of the Labour party.

When Labour won the 1997 general election, Prime Minister Tony Blair gave Londoners a referendum on a new form of city government. Under the new system, London would be run by a directly elected mayor. Londoners backed the idea, establishing the Greater London Authority.

Livingstone wasn’t chosen as Labour’s candidate for the mayoral election, so he ran as an independent. Labour kicked him out of the party for it. Despite this, on 4 May 2000, Livingstone was elected as the city’s first mayor.

Four years later, Blair reversed the decision to suspend Livingstone. After once predicting the mayor would be “a disaster for London”, Blair said: "Those predictions have not turned out to be correct".

Livingstone was mayor from 2000 until 2008, when he was beaten by Boris Johnson.

In 2003, Livingstone introduced the pioneering Congestion Charge in central London. Drivers paid £5 to pass through the area – a measure which reduced traffic from private vehicles and increased the use of public transport. The charge transformed the feel of central London and still exists today.

Livingstone also waged war on Trafalgar Square’s pigeons, employing four hawks and tightening rules on feeding to deter the traditional grey-feathered crowd.

In July 2005, London was chosen to host the 2012 Olympic Games. Livingstone was heavily involved in the bid. “I bid for the Olympics because it’s the only way to get the billions of pounds out of the government to develop the East End”, he said in 2008. The Games did bring development and investment to east London, although it didn’t live up to all its promises.

The day after London was chosen as the host city, the capital suffered a cruel twist of fate. On 7 July 2005, the city’s transport system was targeted in a terrorist attack which killed 52 people and injured over 700 others.

Known simply as 7/7, it remains the deadliest terror attack in London’s history. Livingstone was praised for leading London through the aftermath. “The city of London is the greatest in the world, because everybody lives side by side in harmony,” said Livingstone. “Londoners will not be divided by this cowardly attack.”

Livingstone ran for mayor one last time in 2012, but again lost to Johnson, who got to oversee the Olympic Games.

In 2016, Livingstone was suspended from the Labour party after defending antisemitic comments made by Labour MP Naz Shah.

In the years afterwards, Livingstone continued to deny that he was guilty of antisemitism, or that he’d “brought the Labour party into disrepute”.

In 2018, while still suspended, he resigned from the Labour party, saying that he’d become a “distraction”. In 2023, it was announced that Livingstone had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and would withdraw from public life.