Sadiq Khan wins re-election as Mayor of London despite Labour defeats
8 May 2021, 23:01 | Updated: 9 May 2021, 07:14
Sadiq Khan re-elected as Mayor of London
Sadiq Khan has been re-elected as Mayor of London.
The result, which bucks the trend for Labour's abysmal fortunes across the Super Thursday elections, was widely expected.
There had been early positivity for Conservative Shaun Bailey's campaign, but he fell short as Mr Khan secured another term.
Despite some predictions Mr Khan could win on first preference votes, he instead went to second preferences against Mr Bailey.
Mr Khan took 1,206,034 votes after second preferences were taken into account, compared to Mr Bailey at 977,601.
Meanwhile, of the 14 first-past-the-post seats in the London Assembly, Labour secured nine and the Conservatives five.
Fallout to Labour's dismal showing carried on during Saturday when news emerged that the Deputy Leader Angela Rayner was sacked as party chairman.
Read more: Elections 2021: Sir Keir Starmer 'bitterly disappointed' as Labour suffers defeats
It followed the loss of more than 200 council seats net, and the major defeat in Hartlepool - another brick in the red wall that the Tories have taken.
Mr Khan pledged to build a "better and brighter future" for the capital following the coronavirus pandemic in his victory speech from City Hall after being re-elected London mayor, having been in post since 2016.
He added: "The results of the elections around the UK show that our country - and even our city - remain deeply divided.
"The scars of Brexit are yet to heal, a crude culture war is pushing us further apart, there's a growing gap between our cities and towns.
LBC's @BenKentish says the gap between Sadiq Khan, who has won re-election as Mayor of London, and Shaun Bailey was not as large as hoped by Labour - and he now faces challenges including the economic recovery and knife crime pic.twitter.com/n5ug9iWMyQ
— LBC (@LBC) May 8, 2021
"And economic inequality is getting worse - both within London and between different parts of our country.
"So as we now seek to confront the enormity of the challenge ahead and as we endeavour to rebuild from this pandemic, we simply must use this moment of national recovery to heal these damaging divisions."
Shaun Bailey said: "As I went through these, for me what was two years of campaigning, one feeling felt familiar to me, one challenge had always felt the same.
"And that was the feeling of being written off - by pollsters, by journalists, by fellow politicians.
"But it's no surprise to me that Londoners didn't write me off."
