Mr Ken Livingstone moved to heal his breach with the Labour Party early today, as he awaited coronation as London's first elected Mayor.
But the maverick left-winger's early opinion poll lead failed to translate into a runaway victory, with the BBC predicting the battle would carry into a second-round playoff against the Conservative, Mr Steve Norris.
The survey of 3,000 voters projected Mr Livingstone would emerge with a winning 51 per cent after the elimination of the other candidates, including the Lab our candidate, Mr Frank Dobson, with a humiliating 14 per cent of the votes cast.
And a mid-term "double whammy" for Mr Tony Blair was complete, with the Conservatives well on course to claim at least 400 council seat gains in the English local elections.
Based on a survey of "key wards" in the 152 local authorities contested yesterday, the early morning projections gave the Conservatives 37 per cent of the national vote, to 30 per cent for Labour and a healthy 28 per cent for the Liberal democrats.
That suggested a 10 per cent swing from Labour to the Tories since the general election.
But a bloody nose remained a possibility for Mr William Hague, as the Conservatives waited nervously for the result of the Romsey by-election, where they were defending an 8,000 plus majority against a powerful Liberal Democrat challenge.
Education Secretary David Blunkett, while acknowledging a bad night for Labour, said: "This is not a revival for the Conservative Party, it's survival in its 50th safest seat in the country."
Analyst Prof Tony King said the emerging results suggested "a night of no confidence votes", and that the increasing divergence between local and national voting patterns coupled with an astonishingly low turnout of just 27 per cent - meant they provided no indicator of the likely outcome of the next general election.
While insisting he had always predicted a close race, Mr Livingstone renewed his offer of jobs in the new London administration for the defeated mayoral candidates. He said he looked forward to working for Labour's reelection.