Sadiq Khan, the centre-left mayor of London, became the first three-time winner of the post by a comfortable margin on Saturday. This marked a further setback for Britain's ruling Conservative Party ahead of the impending general election.
Mr Khan, from the main opposition Labor party, was initially elected to the post in 2016, becoming London's first Muslim mayor. He is now the first politician to win three consecutive terms since the position was created in 2000.
With the Labor Party comfortably ahead in the opinion polls ahead of the impending general election, many analysts had expected Khan to be on course for a comfortable victory in a city that tends to lean left, but some saw it potential for an unexpectedly tight situation. race against Conservative Rep. Susan Hall.
That prospect quickly faded on Saturday as it became clear that victory was looming for Mr Khan and in the final results he won more than a million votes and 43 per cent of the total, while Ms Hall took around 32 per cent.
“We faced a campaign of non-stop negativity,” Mr Khan said in an acceptance speech that was initially marred by bickering, adding: “We answered fear-mongering with facts, hatred with hope and attempts to sow division with attempts to unite.”
The vote itself took place on Thursday, along with other local and mayoral elections involving the Conservatives, led by the British controversial Prime Minister Rishi Sunaksuffered a series of setbacks.
The electoral system for London's mayor has changed since Mr Khan was last re-elected, in 2021, and the government has also introduced a new requirement for voters to present photo ID. Some analysts feared this would deter poorer and younger voters, among whom Labor typically polls well.
Amid pressure on living standards and with limited powers as Mayor of London, Mr. Khan battled to convince Londoners that he was improving their lives. Pre-election opinion polls gave him a strong lead over his Conservative rival, Ms Hall, but a narrower advantage than his party enjoys in national surveys.
But Mr Khan ultimately improved his performance in 2021 after promising free school meals for pupils, a freeze on travel costs and more house building.
Ms Hall had campaigned to reduce the area covered by London's Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), an anti-pollution measure that charges owners of some older vehicles 12 pounds and 50 pence, about $15.50 for every day they drive.
ULEZ was introduced to central London by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson when he was mayor. But it was Mr Khan who expanded his reach to the outskirts of London, arguing it was crucial to improve poor air quality. which is known to have contributed to at least one death in London.
While inner London is a Labor Party stronghold, the Conservative Party tends to do significantly better in the more suburban areas of outside London, where a much higher proportion of households own a car. When Mr Johnson left Parliament last year, the Conservatives won a special parliamentary election to replace him in Uxbridge, the district he had represented on the outskirts of London, after campaigning against ULEZ.
The response from owners of older vehicles in the area led to a wider rethink within government about the costs of environmental policies. Not long after the Uxbridge match, Mr Sunak announced a weakening of the UK climate targets.
In her campaign, Ms. Hall also focused on Mr. Khan on crime control in the capital, although one of her party's attack ads, which urged people to rush to safety, caused ridicule when it turned out that the images used were not recorded in London, but in 2017 at Penn Station in New York.
After discovering her wallet was missing last year, Ms Hall told radio station LBC that she believed it had been taken from her pocket on a London Underground train, using the episode as an example of how crime spiraled out of control under Mr Khan. The wallet was later returned by a retired businessman, who said he found it on a train seat and that it appeared to be lost rather than stolen and thrown away.
Ms Hall also faced criticism after previously suggesting that the Notting Hill Carnival, a famous annual Caribbean street event in west London, might have to be moved in the interest of public safety, and liking a description of a post on social media Mr. Khan as “the nipple-high mayor of Londonistan.”
Mr. Khan was on the receiving end of a more direct anti-Muslim attack from Lee Anderson, a lawmaker who was suspended from the Conservative parliamentary party after claiming Islamists were in control of London because Mr. Khan had “given away our capital.” to his comrades.”
Mr Anderson admitted his comments were a “bit awkward” but refused to apologise, later joining Reform UK, a small right-wing party.
But it was former President Donald J. Trump who became the London mayor's best-known critic had an argument with him since 2016 on issues such as immigration and terrorism. In 2019, after the mayor publicly opposed During his state visit to Britain, Mr Trump accused Mr Khan of being “nasty” to him, misspelling his name and mocking his stature.
Shortly afterMr Trump also called London's mayor “a disaster”, citing several stabbings in the British capital and writing on social media that London should replace Mr Khan as soon as possible.
Given that Mr Trump is unpopular in Britain, the former president's attacks are unlikely to have hurt Mr Khan, who has refuted one of the charges against him. In 2019, Mr Trump described the mayor of London as one “stone cold loser.”