Incumbent Conservative Mayor Boris Johnson has confirmed that he will stand in the next mayoral elections in a statement sent to all his supporters he said:
"I am today announcing my decision to seek the Conservative nomination to run for a second term as Mayor of London.
I always said that I would think hard about this decision in the autumn of 2010. And I always said that if I felt things were going well - and if I thought my team had more to deliver for London - then it would be crazy not to put myself forward for the party to consider.
When we came to City Hall in 2008 we found a dysfunctional and spendthrift administration that was pursuing old-fashioned policies of playing one community group off against another.
Our priorities were simple: to cut crime, to protect green space in London, to improve public transport, to build more affordable housing than any previous mayoralty - and to keep London going and growing through the deepest recession in living memory.
Despite all the difficulties we have faced - and deep cuts in all Whitehall budgets - I believe we have made great progress in all these areas.
With every day that passes I have come to love and understand the complexities and challenges of this job - and I also see how much more there is to do."
Turkey approves constitutional reformsTurkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed the passage of a wide-ranging package of constitutional amendments as a "milestone for democracy" after voters approved the measures in a referendum.
