In the end, it was not all that close. Sadiq Khan secured a historic third term as London Mayor with 44 per cent of the vote over Conservative challenger Susan Hall’s 33 per cent. If anything, the uncertainty over the change to the voting system to first-past-the-post seemed to focus minds amongst Khan supporters.
The Mayor has a healthy mandate and now it is time for delivery. Yet the events of the last few days reveal the scale of the challenge he is facing. Since the results were announced on Saturday, there have been three knife murders in the capital: in Bethnal Green, Waltham Forest and Enfield. Then there is housing, a long-term project requiring urgent action now to boost supply and ultimately bring down rents.
Khan is a consummate political operator. Securing an increased share of the vote when seeking a third consecutive term speaks to that. What he actually does with the next four years will go a long way to determining his legacy.
Lesson for the Tories
The Conservatives, meanwhile, must learn an important lesson from this result. If they want to win in London, they have to select a candidate who does more than represent an impassioned but ultimately insufficient segment of the electorate. To win one third of the vote is no embarrassment, but it was never going to be enough.
There was little better news for the Tories across the country. To lose hundreds of council seats and the Blackpool South by-election may have been priced in at this point, but Andy Street’s defeat in the West Midlands mayoral election is likely to spook Conservative backbenchers, many of whom still hoping that being a relatively popular incumbent may save them.
Suggestions that the country is headed for a hung parliament risk making the Prime Minister look detached from reality. Anything is possible in our volatile politics, but both the polls and these local elections indicate something quite different.
Rail strike gloom
As the rain finally relents and the sun makes an appearance in the capital, trust the rail unions to take the edge off it by preventing passengers from going about their day. Rail services in some of London’s busiest commuter lines including Southern, Southeastern and South Western Railway have been severely disrupted as members of the Aslef union walk out as part of a long-running dispute over pay.
The inconvenience for businesses and workers will be felt across the city, hitting those retail and hospitality sectors hardest. Londoners cannot continue to be held to ransom like this.
