would continue. It remained an aspiration of the Conservative Government to deregulate London bus services in future. Following the election of Tony Blair and the Labour Party following the 1997 general election, deregulation of London bus services was no longer pursued. Bus routes therefore continued to be tendered by London Transport and post 2000, its successor, Transport for London. Business unit sell-off Between September 1994 and January 1995, the separate London Buses business units were sold off. Competition rules restricted the number of units that could be bought by one group. All the units were sold either to their management or employees, or to one of the emerging national bus groups that had been growing through acquisition of deregulated companies in the rest of the UK. The exception was London Northern, which was bought by MTL, itself an expanding company formed from the privatisation of the Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive bus company. Following sell-off, the new operators introduced new liveries, logos and trading names to many of the business units. Initially some buses appeared in liveries other than red, but an edict that all buses be 80% red saw this reversed from 1997. Some companies having been renamed, have since resumed their original identities. The only unit not to be sold off was London Forest, which was wound up in the autumn of 1991 following poor financial performance and industrial action; its operating area was subsequently taken up by East London and Leaside Buses, although 11 of its routes in the Walthamstow area passed to private operators Capital Citybus, Thamesway Buses and County Bus. The sell-off of the units proceeded as follows: List of independent operators In the period before the sell off of the main business units, London saw operation by several private companies who gained tenders for routes. Many of these either ceased trading, or were ultimately purchased by large groups, some of which also bought some of the ex-London Buses units. Below is a list of private operators, some of which still operate. Armchair Passenger Transport, acquired by Metroline in November 2004 Atlas Bus & Coach, acquired by London Coaches in July 1994, resold to Metroline in November 1994 Blue Triangle, London operations acquired by Go-Ahead Group in June 2007 Boro'line London operations acquired by Kentish Bus Borehamwood Travel Services acquired by Blazefield Group in 1994 and renamed London Sovereign, later rebranded as Transdev London, sold to