On Saturday, London’s Labour Party mayor Sadiq Khan won a record third term at City Hall, further embarrassing the Conservatives ahead of a general election. Khan won approximately 44% of the vote, more than 11 percentage points ahead of Conservative Party candidate Susan Hall.
He has the largest U.K. political mandate.
On Friday, there was wild speculation that the vote would be closer than expected, but Khan’s victory demonstrated a swing from Conservative to Labour compared to the 2021 mayoral election, which used a different electoral method.
Khan, who replaced Boris Johnson as London mayor in 2016 and has broad policing and financial powers, has become increasingly unpopular in recent years, especially in the suburbs, where he did worse than in the inner city.
His admirers believe he expanded house building, provided free school meals for young children, controlled transport prices, and supported London’s diverse groups. Critics believe he has caused a crime rise, is anti-car, and has unnecessarily allowed weekend pro-Palestinian marches.
Khan remarked during the final result announcement, “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.” Count Binface, a colorful British election candidate, stood behind him with a rubbish can on his head.
Sadiq Khan pushes diversity
Sadiq Khan said, “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
Also re-elected Saturday were Liverpool, Greater Manchester, and West Yorkshire Labour mayors. Labour did best in the West Midlands, a major U.K. bellwether where the Conservative incumbent lost.
After taking over English councils for the first time in decades, Labour scored its latest achievements. The party also won a special election for a member in Parliament, which would be one of the Conservatives’ greatest losses ever.
The Conservatives lost the municipal elections, but Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appears to be safe from further dissent.
The Conservative mayor of Tees Valley in northeast England was reelected, albeit with a low vote share, easing Sunak’s concerns. In the West Midlands, Sunak hoped Andy Street would hold on, but Labour’s Richard Parker won by barely 2,000 votes.
Labour lost votes in Muslim parts of England due to the party leadership’s pro-Israel attitude during the Gaza war.
Upcoming UK Election
Keir Starmer acknowledged that the party has had challenges with Muslim voters, but the findings were generally encouraging for the frontrunner for prime minister in the upcoming general election.
Sunak can call the next election, which he says will be in the second part of 2024. Keir Starmer advised him to act now.
“We’re fed up with your division, chaos, and failure,” he stated Saturday. “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.”
Thursday’s elections in huge portions of England were vital because voters chose who would manage rubbish collection, road maintenance, and local crime prevention. However, a national election is focusing attention on them.
The results demonstrate that Sunak has not benefited the Conservative brand after Boris Johnson and Liz Truss damaged it, according to University of Strathclyde political scholar John Curtice.
“That in a sense is the big takeaway,” he told BBC radio.
Sunak became PM in October 2022 after Truss’s brief term. She resigned after 49 days after a budget of unfunded tax cuts shook financial markets and raised homeowner borrowing costs.
Following her predecessor Johnson’s expulsion for lying to Parliament about Downing Street coronavirus lockdown breaches, her chaotic and traumatic leadership aggravated the Conservatives’ problems.
By late afternoon Saturday, with most of the 2,661 local election seats tabulated, the Conservatives had lost half of their 1,000 seats, while Labour had gained 200 despite Gaza-related losses.
The Greens and centrist Liberal Democrats also gained. Reform U.K., which is aiming to defeat the Conservatives from the right, also did well in the special parliamentary election in Blackpool South, where it was less than 200 votes from second place.
Source: The Associated Press
