Mayor Boris: From blundering buffoon to tidy candidate

Boris Johnson's children led Tory celebrations after their father sealed victory in the battle to become Mayor of London.

Sitting in front-row seats in the packed chamber of City Hall, they erupted in applause as news of his stunning victory was confirmed shortly after midnight.

Polling results released throughout a long evening of waiting confirmed the huge success of Mr Johnson's campaign targeting the capital's outer boroughs. The first results of the night set the tone for the victory as Bexley and Bromley recorded a thumping vote of 122,052 first-preference votes for Mr Johnson – three times the support for his Labour opponent.

As the votes poured in, Mr Johnson's position looked ever-more unassailable with even the results from Labour-leaning areas making little dent in his lead.

It capped a remarkable turnaround for Mr Johnson who appeared to have a daunting task when he was selected last autumn to take on Mr Livingstone.

His campaign appeared to get off to a low-key start. But early jitters in the Cameron camp about the choice of Mr Johnson were dispelled when Lynton Crosby was signed up to run his campaign for city hall. The 51-year-old Australian political strategist, who ran Michael Howard's 2005 general election campaign, was paid an undisclosed sum to knock Mr Johnson into shape. Whatever he earned, leading Tory MPs said it was worth it. Mr Johnson, 43, was transformed from blundering gaffe-prone buffoon into a slightly tidier, disciplined candidate.

Gone were the jokes and the clowning often linked with the one-time star of Have I Got News for You.

The Ken camp attempted to play on the public's fears by claiming that Mr Johnson would be a "disaster" for London. But it did not put off voters. Mr Johnson, the Tory MP for Henley since 2001, also hired heavyweight strategists James McGrath, adviser to George Osborne, the shadow Chancellor, and Toby Vincent, a senior London Tory. Dan Ritterband, a Conservative Central Office insider, lacked Mr Crosby's experience but remained as campaign director and will work with Mr Johnson at City Hall.

There were even attempts to insist on the candidate being called "Mr Johnson" to make him more serious, but having won the election, it is unlikely that the Mayor of London will be worried in the future about being known by his first name.

His naturally open style appealed to a wide cross-section of people, including young voters who liked his celebrity status, taxi drivers who hated Ken, and women who found him attractive. Even his tangled private life failed to put the voters off.

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