LABOUR’S SADIQ KHAN IS THE NEW MAYOR OF LONDON

GettySadiq Khan for the Labour party.

Sadiq Khan of the Labour party is the new Mayor of London.

Khan has secured a comfortable victory over his closest rival — the Conservative party’s Zac Goldsmith — with 1,310,143 votes. That’s a record number of votes for a single politician in the UK.

“Thank you London. London is the greatest in the world. I’m so proud of our city. I’m deeply humbled by the hope and trust you’ve placed in me today,” Khan said in his victory speech.

Khan went on to say he was glad that London chose the politics of “hope over fear and unity over division,” and paid tribute to his father.

“My dad would be so proud that the city he chose to call home has chosen one of his children to be Mayor.”

The result is not hugely surprising because even at 70% of the count, Khan was way ahead of Goldsmith. Bookmakers like Ladbrokes even started to call the end of the race just after midday.

Khan has been the frontrunner for over a month leading up to the elections but a flurry of party member suspensions, including that of the former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, over allegations of anti-Semitism threatened to hurt his chances.

However, while there are signs that it did do some damage to Labour in the council elections, it didn’t seem to impact on Khan.

Khan also faced embarassment when his speech writer Shueb Salar quit his job in March, following the publication of a video of him brandishing a gun and joking about being a secret hitman was unearthed by the Evening Standard.

But despite these setbacks, Khan has promised popular policies across his campaign. They include:

• Housebuilding target —Khan aims to build 50,000 new homes in London a year amongst other policies.
• More police on the streets — He said that this would be to tackle threats of terrorism.
• Freeze transport fares for 4 years.

The London mayoral contest has been a bitterly fought two-horse race between Goldsmith and Khan. The failed Conservative candidate accused Khan of being a radical and repeatedly attacked his judgement for sharing platforms with extremists. Khan’s camp countered that these attacks amounted to “dog-whistle racism” intended to play on voters’ prejudices around the new mayor’s faith.

Khan, the son of a bus driver who grew up on a London council estate, is the city’s first Muslim mayor.