One in three Londoners feel “uncomfortable” about the prospect of a Muslim mayor, a poll has found.
The survey by YouGov comes less than a year before Londoners vote on who they want to represent them as their next Mayor when Boris Johnson steps down next May.
One of Labour’s leading candidates to be Mayor, Sadiq Khan, is a Muslim, as is one of the four men fighting it out to be nominated as the Conservative candidates, Syed Kamall.
However when the same group of people in the poll were asked whether they felt comfortable with a Mayor from an ethnic minority, just 13 per cent said they were “uncomfortable” with the prospect.
The proportion of Muslims in London has risen to 12.4 per cent in London, according to the 2011 census, accounting for four out of 10 of England’s Muslims.
But in some boroughs of the capital, such as Tower Hamlets and Newham, Muslims make up as many as one third of the population.
A total of 1,153 people living in London over the age of 18 were asked whether they felt comfortable or uncomfortable about a number of scenarios.
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The results show that 55 per cent of Londoners were “comfortable” with the idea of a Muslim Mayor, with 31 per cent saying they were “uncomfortable,” while 13 per cent responding “don’t know”.
