Labour’s Sadiq Khan has been elected mayor of London, winning a historic third term in a dramatic contest.
Khan’s win saw him successfully fend off Conservative candidate, Susan Hall, on Saturday afternoon.
Hall was considered his main adversary but Khan ended up with a comfortable majority.
Khan secured 1,088,000 votes (43.7%), a majority of some 275,000 over Ms Hall, who secured just under 812,000 votes (32.6%).
According to London Elects, which manages the mayoral and London assembly elections, voter turnout was only 1.5% down from 2021, at 40.5%.
Khan’s team became confident of winning the race after Labour took the North East and West Central constituencies from the Conservatives, more than two hours before the final result was declared.
The victory followed a tense Friday night, described by Labour sources as a “24-hour vacuum” because a pause on London mayoral counts enabled “excited” Tory activists to steal the social media space with rumours of Hall posing a much greater threat, and polling predictions being “completely wrong”.
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This led some Labour insiders to believe the possibility that the candidates could be a few points apart.
However, outside of the London bubble, Labour figures were forced to acknowledge the party’s stance on Gaza had weakened support in local elections in Muslim heavy areas.
As party leader Sir Keir Starmer celebrated historic wins in Blackpool, Hartlepool and Thurrock on Friday, he also promised to “win back” Muslim support in areas such as Oldham, Newcastle and Bolton.
A London Conservative MP criticised Hall’s campaign for being too focused on channelling “anti-Khan” sentiment and failing to provide voters with a vision on what she would actually do.
The results came after more Labour victories in mayoral elections in the north of England on Saturday. Steve Rotheram won the Liverpool mayoral election , while Andy Burnham was re-elected in Greater Manchester and Tracy Brabin won a second term as mayor of West Yorkshire.
The chair of the Labour Muslim Network has warned Labour has “so much work to do with regaining the trust of Muslim voters”, as the party’s Gaza stance appeared to dent local election support in some areas and a row erupted over “Islamophobia” claims.
Ali Milani, who stood against former Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the 2019 general election, told the BBC there was “hurt and betrayal” among many Muslim voters at Labour not immediately backing an Israel-Gaza ceasefire and not supporting an arms embargo.
In Oldham, Labour lost seats to independents in five wards, losing control of the council in the process. Retiring councillor Paul Fryer told The Oldham Times: “Labour have been in power in Oldham for 13 years, perhaps people are a bit tired of Labour. In some parts of the borough, it’s the Gaza issue that may lose them the seat.”
In Rochdale, Labour lost one seat and George Galloway’s Workers Party won two seats, though retained control. Labour lost control in Kirklees too, losing five seats – coming after two councillors quit in protest over the party’s Gaza stance earlier this year.
