The Greens celebrated becoming ‘London’s undisputed third party last night, as Mayoral candidate Sian Berry achieved the Greens’ highest ever vote in Thursday’s election, while the party retained their two seats on the Assembly.

With the results announced last night, over 150,000 people – 5.8% of legible ballots – picked Berry as their first preference, while nearly half a million others – a significant 21% – voted Berry as their second choice, meaning the Greens’ kept their Mayoral deposit for the first time.

Sian Berry was elected as one of two London Assembly Members, alongside Cllr Caroline Russell, after the Greens won 7.9% on the proportional London-wide list ballot.

Berry and Russell replace outgoing Green AMs Darren Johnson and Jenny Jones, who had represented the party in City Hall for 16 years each.

Labour’s Sadiq Khan secured the Mayorality, seeing off what was widely viewed as a divisive Conservative campaign, focusing on race and extremism issues against a Muslim candidate.

Khan led Zac Goldsmith by 44.2% to 35.6% after first votes were counted, according to the BBC, while he had 1,310,143 votes after second preferences, compared with Mr Goldsmith’s 994,614. The result gave him ‘the largest personal mandate of any politician in UK history’.

The Greens believe they have now ‘cemented our position as London’s undisputed third party’, pushing the Lib Dems and UKIP into fourth and fifth place respectively. It is the second election in a row where the party have pushed the parties below third place, following Baroness Jenny Jones’ performance in 2012.

Natalie Bennett hailed the results as ‘outstanding’, saying: “The Greens’ stand-out results in London demonstrate how a positive campaign with good ideas for London can resonate widely with voters. We thank all our candidates, activists and supporters for delivering our biggest and best campaign in London to date.”

Sian Berry celebrated ‘a victory for the politics of bringing Londoners together not dividing them.’

“I’m proud that Londoners have voted for good, positive ideas in such numbers. In every vote Greens have cemented our position as the number three party in London, coming third in the vote for mayor, on the London-wide list and in a majority of constituencies.

“The immediate priority for Greens on the London Assembly now will be to push the new mayor to make the right decisions on road-building and estate demolitions and to clean up our city’s filthy air.”

The election also saw UKIP return to the Assembly by winning two seats, taking one off the Lib Dems and one from the Conservatives, meaning the Greens and UKIP are now equally represented in City Hall.

Turnout was 45%, the second highest ever for the Mayoral post.