It was only a year ago that Labour lost the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election. Despite double-digit poll leads across the country, the party fell short by 495 votes in a contest widely interpreted as a referendum on the extension of Sadiq Khan's Ultra-low emission zone (Ulez).
The fallout from that result was significant. First, Keir Starmer said some not so nice things about the Mayor of London. And second, Rishi Sunak took that narrow victory and used it to pivot the Tories, rhetorically at least, away from net zero. How times have changed. Today, Uxbridge and South Ruislip has a Labour MP, prime minister Starmer is launching the government's clean energy company, and Khan, who romped home to a third mayoral term, has every reason to feel a little bit smug.
