  the mayor of london is an elected politician who, along with the london assembly of 25 members, is accountable for the strategic government of greater london. conservative boris johnson has held the position since 4 may 2008. the position was previously held by ken livingstone from the creation of the role on 4 may 2000 until his succession by johnson. the role, created in 2000 after the london devolution referendum, was the first directly elected mayor in the united kingdom. the mayor of london is the mayor of the entirety of greater london, including the city of london, for which there is also the ceremonial lord mayor of the city of london. each london borough also has a ceremonial mayor or, in hackney, lewisham, newham or tower hamlets, an elected mayor. ==background== the greater london council, the elected governance for greater london, was abolished in 1986 following the local government act 1985. strategic functions were split off to various joint arrangements. londoners voted in a referendum in 1998 to create new governance structures for greater london. the directly elected mayor of london was created by the greater london authority act 1999 in 2000 as part of the reforms. ==elections==  the mayor is elected by the supplementary vote method for a fixed term of four years, with elections taking place in may. as with most elected posts in the uk, there is a deposit, in this case of Â£10,000, returnable on the candidate's winning at least 5% of the first-choice votes cast. ===2000===  the 2000 campaign was incident-filled. the eventual winner, ken livingstone, went back on an earlier pledge not to run as an [[inde
Directly_elected_mayors_of_places_in_England Lists_of_mayors_of_places_in_England Local_government_in_London Mayors_of_London