London voters chose Boris Johnson as their new mayor on Friday, in a day that saw Gordon Brown's Labour Party get thumped in elections across England and Wales.
AFP:
Britain's governing Labour Party suffered its worst local election results in 40 years Saturday with widespread losses, including the key political prize of running London.
The Conservative Party's journalist-turned-lawmaker Boris Johnson topped off a depressing day for Labour, seizing London's City Hall and control of its 11-billion-pound (14-billion-euro, 22-billion-dollar) budget.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the losses in local elections held Thursday in England and Wales and London were "bad" and "disappointing", linking the effects of the global credit crunch to the centre-left party's defeat.
"We have lessons to learn from that and then we will move forward," he added. A fight back is expected as early as next week, when a new legislative programme is outlined.
But the first editions of Saturday's newspapers suggested the Brown had an uphill battle to turn round what many saw as more than simply mid-term blues and an indicator of a Tory renaissance after 11 years in opposition.
Godspeed Boris Johnson. Above photo (John Stillwell/PA) shows Boris Johnson at the announcement of the London mayoral election results.
London voters chose Boris Johnson as their new mayor on Friday, in a day that saw Gordon Brown's Labour Party get thumped in elections across England and Wales. AFP: 
