Labour’s mayoral wins add to Tory misery
Khan seals record third term in London
Sadiq Khan, the Labour party’s mayor of London, romped to victory Saturday, securing a record third straight term at city hall, on another hugely disappointing day for the U.K.’s governing Conservatives ahead of a looming general election.
Khan won a little over a million votes, or nearly 44 per cent of the vote, more than 11 percentage points ahead of his main challenger, the Conservative party’s Susan Hall. His is the biggest individual mandate of any politician in the U.K.
There had been frenzied speculation on Friday that the result would be closer than previously thought, but Khan’s victory showed a swing from Conservative to Labour when compared with the previous mayoral election in 2021, even though that was conducted under a different electoral system.
Khan, who replaced Boris Johnson as London mayor in 2016 and who has widespread policing and budget powers, has been an increasingly divisive figure in the past few years regardless of the facts for or against, particularly in the suburbs, where he fared worse than in the inner city.
His supporters say he has multiple achievements to his name, such as expanding housebuilding, free school meals for young children, keeping transport costs in check and generally backing London’s minority groups. His critics say he has overseen a crime surge, been anticar and has unnecessarily allowed pro-Palestinian marches to become a regular feature at weekends.
“We faced a campaign of non-stop negativity, but I couldn’t be more proud that we answered the fearmongering with facts, hate with hope, and attempts to divide with efforts to unite,” Khan said at the declaration of the final result. Among the candidates standing behind him was Count Binface, his head covered by a garbage can, a regular colourful presence in British elections.
“We ran a campaign that was in keeping with the spirit and values of this great city, a city that regards our diversity not as a weakness, but as an almighty strength, and one that rejects right hard-wing populism and looks forward, not back,” Khan added.
The incumbent Labour mayors in Liverpool, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire were also re-elected Saturday. For Labour, arguably the best result was in the West Midlands, widely regarded as the key bellwether region of the U.K. where the Conservative incumbent lost.
Though the Conservatives suffered a drubbing in the local elections, it looks as though Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will not face a further rebellion among his ranks.
Sunak was able to breathe a sigh of relief when the Conservative mayor of Tees Valley in the northeast of England was re-elected, albeit with a depressed share of the vote. Sunak had hoped that Andy Street would hold on in the West Midlands but he lost to Labour’s Richard Parker, who claimed a majority of under 2,000 votes.