Labour’s Sadiq Khan was re-elected as Mayor of London. He defended the mandate for the third time in a row, which no one else has managed to do, the BBC News server reported. According to official election results, he won almost 44 percent of the vote, defeating his Conservative opponent Susan Hall. In 2016, Khan became the first Muslim ever to head a Western capital.
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19:08 4/5/2024 (Updated: 20:39 04/05/2024)
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Sadiq Khan became the mayor of the British capital for the third time in a row Photo: Chris J Ratcliffe | Source: Reuters
Khan received just over a million votes, or nearly 44 percent, and beat Hall by more than 11 percentage points. It did particularly well in inner London, but struggled in several fringe boroughs.
Speculation was rife on Friday that the result would be closer than originally thought. But Khan’s lead showed a conservative-to-Labor swing compared to the previous election in 2021, according to the AP.
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Thanks to Saturday’s result, the 53-year-old son of Pakistani immigrants overtook his predecessor and former prime minister Boris Johnson, who served two terms.
“We faced a continuous negative campaign, but I couldn’t be more proud that we answered the fearmongering with facts, the hatred of hope and the attempts to divide by trying to unite,” Khan said after the final result was announced. “We ran a campaign that matched the spirit and values of this great city that sees our diversity not as a weakness but as an almighty strength, and a city that rejects hard-right populism and looks forward, not back,” he added.
He also promised to build more social housing and work with any future Labor government to strengthen police capacity.
Millions of English people voted on Thursday in local elections, the last regular vote for most of the UK before the general election.
The ruling Conservative Party was preparing for significant losses, which will likely further weaken the position of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The English elected over 2,500 members of municipal councils. Around 17:00 CET on Saturday, the left-wing opposition had secured 1,140 seats, thus improving by 185 seats compared to the previous elections.
The conservatives, on the other hand, lost 473 seats and have so far won only 513 elected representatives. Liberal Democrats with 521 seats and independent candidates with 228 seats also improved.
According to Reuters, Khan’s victory helped consolidate Labor’s lead ahead of a national election likely to be held later this year.
Opinion polls predict a victory for the left-wing opposition, bringing their leader Keir Starmer to power and ending 14 years of Conservative rule in Britain.
Analyst John Curtice said Sunak had failed to salvage the Conservative brand after the damage done by his predecessors Boris Johnson and then Liz Truss, according to the election results.
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