Former transport minister Steve Norris has been named as the Tory's candidate for London mayor, replacing the party's initial choice, Lord Archer.

A delighted Mr Norris, who had been defeated first time around by the disgraced peer, won 12,903 votes compared to 4,712 for London businessman Andrew Boff.

Mr Norris took 73% of the votes on a turnout of 46.9%.

Celebrating the win, Mr Norris said: "I have had losing and I have had winning, and winning is better."

With the Tory candidate in place Labour are now the only major party not to have selected their contender for mayor.

Mr Norris and his team are now able to begin campaigning across the capital. Labour, which has been mired in a battle to stop Ken Livingstone winning the nomination, chooses its candidate in a month's time.

The Liberal Democrats announced their candidate, businesswoman Susan Kramer, last summer.

Mr Norris is predicting that he will win the contest in May - giving the party a major lift ahead of a general election.

"We have rerun the whole process and we are still here one month before Labour.

"I do find it extraordinary that in order to get any candidate providing it's Frank Dobson, New Labour has ditched its democratic principles for a shameful process where it takes the votes of 1,000 members to equal that of one Labour Member of Parliament.

"That contempt for their own party members should tell every Londoner what they need to know."

Mr Norris stressed, however, that he was determined to leave behind the political games of the previous weeks and fight on policy issues alone.

He said that his priorities were improving transport, policing, job creation, poverty and making use of the "enormous untapped potential" of the capital.

End of a saga

In the original ballot, Mr Norris, 54, beat Mr Boff but came second to Lord Archer.

But the Tory selection process was re-opened when the millionaire novelist stood down in November after admitting attempting to create a false alibi before a libel trial against the Daily Star newspaper.

In another twist the Tory campaign was almost derailed for a second time when the party's mayoral panel rejected Mr Norris in December because of his publicly-acknowledged string of extra-marital affairs.

He was reinstated after the intervention of the party leader William Hague.

Conservative Party chairman Michael Ancram praised the "open and democratic process" which had led to the nomination of Steve Norris.

"I challenge the Labour Party and Tony Blair to have the same open process," he said.

"I challenge them to allow their trade union members to vote individually so that it is one member, one vote."

Dobson hits out

But reacting to Mr Norris' nomination, Labour mayoral contender Frank Dobson said: "It beggars belief that the Tories are again resorting to another ex-MP who fails to take politics seriously and who has failed as transport minister in London."

Labour's campaign co-ordinator, Cabinet Office minister Ian McCartney, also criticised the Tories' choice of candidate.

He said: "The Tories' dithering is what we expect from William Hague's weak leadership and bad judgment, and his hokey-cokey over selecting second choice Steve Norris shows just why the public don't trust them."

On Sunday, Mr Hague accepted he and his party had made a mistake in backing Lord Archer.

"With hindsight, yes, we did, and I take entirely the responsibility for that," he said.

He said the party's anti-sleaze watchdog, the Ethics and Integrity Committee, would report on Lord Archer within weeks.