The neighborhood of Lambeth and Southwark had to wait to officially dictate what soon became known as inevitable from the first results: Sadiq Khan was elected for a third consecutive term as Mayor of London with a significant margin for the Conservative candidate. Susan Hall. The Labor politician received 1,088,225 votes against 812,397, a difference of almost 276 thousand votes.
The Conservatives won just three of the 14 boroughs in which London is divided, and Khan improved his result in West Midlands and the South West. The Tories In areas that were ranked second three years ago.
Labor managed to win West Central (Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster). The Tories, more than 11 thousand votes are in favour. In 2021, Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey defeated Khan in this seat by over 2200 votes.
The result, which defied recent forecasts, pointed to a much tighter race between the two candidates than polls had suggested.
“It’s been a very difficult few months,” the mayor was quoted as saying Guardian, when the result is known. “We faced a perpetual campaign of negativity.” As if to prove this, before his victory speech, one of the attendees came to the stage shouting “Khan killed London”.
For this reason, the Labor politician thanked his mother, wife and two daughters for their strength and support and apologized to them for having to endure all the threats and opposition during his tenure.
This third term for Khan is historic as his two predecessors, Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson, were created in 2000 to give only two terms.
Political scientist John Curtis told the BBC that “if the Conservatives got their hopes up last night, they would have been very disappointed” in Sadiq Khan on his way to winning the London mayoral election. Already guessed.
