THANKS A MILLION
SADIQ KHAN IS RE-ELECTED AS LONDON MAYOR FOR A SECOND TERM AFTER RECEIVING MORE THAN A MILLION VOTES –
SADIQ Khan has been re-elected Mayor of London for a second term.
The race was slightly closer than thought, with Labour’s Mr Khan eventually securing his place as London mayor for an additional three years.
Mr Khan received 1,013,721 votes after voters’ first preference, with 192,313 second preferences – 55.2% of the vote.
Conservative Shaun Bailey received 893,051 first preference votes, and 84,550 second preference votes – 44.8%.
The Green Party’s Sian Berry received 197,976 first preference votes.
Speaking at City Hall, Mr Khan said: “I am deeply humbled by the trust Londoners have placed in me to continue leading the greatest city on earth.
“I promise to help build a better and brighter future for London after the dark days of the pandemic and to create a greener, fairer and safer city for all Londoners.
“I’m proud to have won an overwhelming mandate today.
“I want to thank everyone who voted for me – Labour voters and non-Labour voters.”
He went on to speak directly to those Londoners who did not vote for him too, saying he will never ignore their voices, concerns or worries. He then addressed what he called a “deeply divided country and city”, with a “culture war” pushing us further apart.
In the 2016 London mayoral election he won with 44.2% of the vote after the first round vote, with 56.8% after the second round, where second preferences were added to the total under the supplementary vote system.
It means he can breathe a sigh of relief, after pleading with left-leaning voters ‘not to be complacent’ before ballots closed on Thursday evening.
Speaking to My London’s Zak Garner-Purkis during last-minute campaigning in east London on Thursday, the Mayor of London said he is “always nervous” before elections.
At the time, Mr Khan had been the overwhelming favourite, but as the votes were counted it soon became clear his fears were not unfounded.
Speaking to us at the time, Mr Khan said: “I’m always nervous.
“I’ve been fighting elections since I was 11 and I’m always nervous before the results come back.
“The key thing for me is to make sure that Londoners vote.
“My concern is I’ve had too many Londoners say to me; ‘you don’t need my vote Sadiq, it’s in the bag.’”
It is thought that Mr Khan’s win may have been so closely fought due to voter complacency, paired with local anger over London’s Low Traffic Neighbourhoods.
Originally he had been expected to secure more than 50% of the votes, but as the results began to come in, Mr Bailey was initially ahead of him, with a 40% share of the votes to Mr Khan’s 35%.
However, the Tory lead was short lived with Mr Khan overtaking his rival by around 1.30pm on Friday.
A London political source said on Friday that they felt the Conservative party was trying to make the mayoral race look closer than it was.
They said: “If you look at the boroughs which have declared their counts, they are ones you’d expect the Tories to be ahead.
“They are trying to spin it to make it look closer than it is.”
This turned out to be true, with Saturday being a better day for Mr Khan, ending in victory by the evening and without needing to wait until Sunday morning, which had potentially been on the cards.
Labour’s struggle in London pales in comparison to the rest of the country, which has seen huge Conservative gains being made across England.
A big shock came during the Hartlepool by-election, which saw the seat swing to the Conservatives for the first time in the constituency’s 47-year history.
It was not just a small win for the Conservatives there either – Jill Mortimer gained 15,529 votes to Labour’s Paul Williams’ 8,589.