Pakistan-origin Briton Sadiq Khan clinches London mayor’s post for record third time

ISLAMABAD, May 04 (SABAH): Pakistan-origin Briton Sadiq Khan has swept to victory in the London mayor’s election for a record third time as the polls results poured in Labour party’s favour, BBC reported on Saturday. Sadiq Khan secured 43 percent votes and his opponent candidate of Conservative party Susan Hall secured 33 percent votes.

Final results for the London mayoral constituency of Lambeth & Southwark showed Sadiq Khan’s win as official as the he secured 106,861 votes against Conservative’s Susan Hall, who received 26,347 votes.

Sadiq Khan, who was first elected in May 2016, beat his Conservative rival Susan Hall by more than 276,000 votes – representing a swing of 3.2% to Labour. He won nine of the 14 constituencies including two gains from the Tories. More than 2.4m votes were cast reflecting a turnout of 42.8% – ever so slightly down compared to the 2021 mayoral election. Counting started at 09:00 BST on Saturday morning and all candidates are expected to appear at City Hall later for an official announcement.

So far, Sadiq Khan has won in the Lambeth & Southwark, Barnet & Camden, City of London & East, Merton & Wandsworth, Greenwich & Lewisham, Enfield & Haringey and North East, all of which he won at the last contest in 2021.

Sir Keir Starmer’s party continued to count gains after Sadiq Khan’s landslide victory against his nearest rival, in a contest dominated by criticisms of his decision to expand London’s ultra low emission zone.

Keir had signalled he was confident of Sadiq Khan’s victory before declarations commenced, as he counted mayoral victories for his party in Liverpool, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, and in Greater Manchester where Andy Burnham returned to power.

In a fresh challenge to the prime minister to call an election, Sir Keir said: “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.”

Sadiq Khan needed to win a simple majority of ballots cast, as the rules for the mayoral race were changed to a first-past-the-post voting system ahead of the latest election.