Labour’s Sadiq Khan wins re-election as London mayor

Sadiq Khan was re-elected as London’s mayor, final results showed on Saturday, helping to cement the Labour Party’s commanding lead over the governing Conservatives in local elections ahead of Britain’s national vote later this year.

Khan’s victory, his third in a row, was widely expected despite some public anger over knife crime and the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), which charges drivers of older, more polluting vehicles a daily fee.

For Labour, London is the latest of a number of councils and mayoralties it has won in the local elections, which took place on Thursday, inflicting heavy losses on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives.

“It’s been a difficult few months, we faced a campaign of non-stop negativity,” Khan said in a speech after the results showed he had won 43.8% of the vote against 33% for the Conservatives’ candidate, Susan Hall.

“For the last eight years, London has been swimming against the tide of a Tory (Conservative) government and now with a Labour Party that’s ready to govern again under Keir Starmer, it’s time for Rishi Sunak to give the public a choice.”

Opinion polls predict that Labour will win the next national election, propelling its leader Keir Starmer to power and ending 14 years of Conservative government in Britain.

Khan, 53, who became the first Muslim mayor of the British capital in 2016, has pledged to build more social housing and work with a future national Labour government to boost police capacity.