Sadiq Khan Wins Second Term as Mayor of London

Sadiq Khan, the Pakistani-origin Labour Party candidate in the race to be re-elected London Mayor for a third term, looked set on Saturday to register a decisive victory, as the local election results from England and Wales continued to reflect a strong swing in favour of the Opposition party.The 53-year-olds own camp and the BBC have decided to call the election in favour of Khan as borough-wise results poured in for the UK capital to show that he was on course to beat his nearest Conservative Party rival, Susan Hall, with a strong voter swing in favour of Labour.

Sadiq Khan, the Pakistani-origin Labour Party candidate in the race to be re-elected London Mayor for a third term, looked set on Saturday to register a decisive victory, as the local election results from England and Wales continued to reflect a strong swing in favour of the Opposition party.

The 53-year-old's own camp and the BBC have decided to call the election in favour of Khan as borough-wise results poured in for the UK capital to show that he was on course to beat his nearest Conservative Party rival, Susan Hall, with a strong voter swing in favour of Labour. Delhi-born businessman Tarun Ghulati, contesting as an Independent candidate, is trailing far behind in most of the boroughs where counting has been completed.

''Sadiq Khan was absolutely the right candidate. He has got two terms of delivery behind him and I am confident that he has got another term of delivery in front of him," said Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

The role of London Mayor represents the 8.9 million people living across the capital and has a budget of GBP 20.4 billion and is responsible for Transport for London (TfL) and has some control over roads, policing and housing in the city. Londoners also went to the polls on Thursday to vote for one of 14 local representatives on the London Assembly and 11 London wide Assembly members who hold the Mayor of London accountable.

The Labour Party continued its winning streak in most of the local elections, seen as reflective of the electorate's mood ahead of a general election expected later this year. The party won the Liverpool City Region and South Yorkshire mayoral races, the North East mayoralty, as well as the brand-new mayoralty of East Midlands.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who was handed a glimmer of hope on Friday with Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen retaining the seat for the Conservatives, will be hoping Birmingham's Tory Mayor Andy Street is able to win a contest that has been on a knife-edge between the Conservatives and Labour.

However, any immediate manoeuvres by the Tory rebels to try and challenge Sunak's leadership seems to have been averted for the moment as there isn't much appetite for another upheaval in the party ranks.

An analysis of the local election results by BBC's polling expert Professor John Curtice suggests that Labour is now in pole position to win the general election, with the local elections extrapolated to a national level giving the Opposition a comfortable lead.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)