page_title: Ken Livingstone
section_title: Reaction to 7 July 2005 London bombings
hierarchical_section_title: Ken Livingstone / Acts as mayor / Reaction to 7 July 2005 London bombings
caption_attribution_description: A poster celebrating the multi-cultural nature of London, one of many erected by the Mayor of London in the wake of the 7 July 2005 London bombings. (C) Gerry Lynch, 2005.
context_page_description: Kenneth Robert Livingstone is a British socialist politician. He has twice held the leading political role in London local government. First, he was leader of the Greater London Council from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986. Secondly, he was the first Mayor of London, from its creation in 2000 until 2008. He also served as Labour Party Member of Parliament for Brent East between 1987 and 2001.
  He was elected Mayor of London as an Independent candidate after the Labour Party decided not to nominate him as their candidate in the first mayoral elections. In January 2004, he was re-admitted to the Labour Party. As the official Labour Party candidate for Mayor in the June 2004 elections, he won with a total of 828,380 first- and second-preference votes. On 1 May 2008 Livingstone was defeated in his second re-election bid by Conservative candidate Boris Johnson, and his term as Mayor of London ended on 4 May 2008.
context_section_description: After the 7 July 2005 London bombings Livingstone, from the 117th IOC Session in Singapore, where it had recently been announced London would host the 2012 Olympic Games, delivered a speech.
  Finally, I wish to speak directly to those who came to London today to take life. I know that you personally do not fear giving up your own life in order to take others - that is why you are so dangerous. But I know you fear that you may fail in your long-term objective to destroy our free society and I can show you why you will fail. In the days that follow, look at our airports, look at our sea ports and look at our railway stations and, even after your cowardly attack, you will see that people from the rest of Britain, people from around the world will arrive in London to become Londoners and to fulfill their dreams and achieve their potential. They choose to come to London, as so many have come before because they come to be free, they come to live the life they choose, they come to be able to be themselves. They flee you because you tell them how they should live. They do not want that and nothing you do, however many of us you kill, will stop that flight to our city where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another. Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail.
  Livingstone defended the police after the mistaken killing of a Brazilian man, Jean Charles de Menezes, who police believed was a suicide bomber.
caption: In the aftermath of the 2005 London bombings, Livingstone initiated a campaign to celebrate London's multiculturalism
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