Yahoo Finance London Mayor: Sadiq Khan re-elected for historic third term
Labour’s Sadiq Khan has been re-elected to City Hall for a historic third term as he cruised to victory in the London mayoral elections.
Khan secured 1,088,225 votes, compared to Conservative rival Susan Hall’s 812,397, delivering him a majority of 275,828 – or 11.1 per cent – and a 43.8 per cent share of the vote.
In third place, Liberal Democrat Rob Blackie secured 145,184 votes – closely followed by the Green Party’s Zoë Garbett on 145,114.
Reform UK’s Howard Cox came fifth on 78,865, while Count Binface – in third to last place on 24,260 – beat Britain First’s Nick Scanlon on 20,519.
The incumbent mayor, who has been in post for the past eight years, was re-elected as he snapped up support across the capital, despite turnout across London being down from 2021 and 2016 on 40.5 per cent.
It came despite Conservative briefings on Friday suggesting Hall, a former Harrow council leader and ex-City Hall Tory group leader, could snatch victory in the capital, after turnout figures indicated higher voter numbers in outer London areas.
Labour sources said the result was a “landslide win in London” and the “biggest ever margin of victory in a mayoral election”.
Khan was met with boos as he took to the stage after his re-election was announced, with a man who was walking on the stage chanting “Khan killed London” told he would be removed by security.
Speaking at City Hall, Mr Khan said: “Thank you from the bottom of my heart, thank you London.”
He continued: “We faced a campaign of non-stop negativity, but I couldn’t be more proud that we answered the fear-mongering with facts, hate with hope, and attempts to divide with efforts to unite.
“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.
“It’s truly an honour to be re-elected for a third term, and do so with a record level of support from Londoners, with an increased margin of victory.”
Speaking ahead of Khan’s win, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer issued a fresh challenge to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to call an election, declaring: “Fourteen years and, I am sorry, I don’t care which political party you support, if you leave your country in a worse state than when you found it 14 years later, you do not deserve to be in government for a moment longer.”
The mayor has introduced policies including the ultra low emissions zone (ULEZ) expansion to outer London in a bid to clean up the capital’s air, and has been criticised for his record on tackling knife crime and housing delivery.
His manifesto pledges included getting 40,000 new social homes built, delivering 50,000 new jobs and making London’s rivers swimmable by 2034.
Speaking at City Hall after the election results came in, Hall said: “I’d like to congratulate all my fellow mayoral candidates and congratulate Sadiq on his victory.
“Spending a year campaigning for this election has been an honour and a privilege. I have loved speaking to Londoners about the things that matter to them.
“The thing that matters the most, and to me, is reforming the Met and making London safe again. I hope Sadiq makes this his top priority.
“He owes it to the families of those thousands of people who have lost lives to knife crime under his mayoralty.
“And I hope too that he stops patronising people, like me, who care. This isn’t an episode of The Wire, this is real life on his watch.”
A Conservative campaign spokesperson said Hall “fought a campaign on common sense conservative principles, and defied the polls”.
