UK Labour Party candidate Sadiq Khan has become the first Muslim elected mayor of London, results show.
With 100 percent of first-preference votes counted on Friday, Khan, the son of a Pakistani bus driver and a seamstress, scored a resounding victory over his Conservative rival, billionaire Zac Goldsmith, in the race for the mayoralty of Britain’s financial center.
Khan won 57 percent of the votes after second preferences were taken into account with Goldsmith receiving 43 percent, according to the Guardian.
The 45-year-old MP was expected to win back City Hall for the Labour Party after eight years of Conservative rule, and at the end of an often bitter campaign during which Goldsmith has been accused of Islamophobia.
Goldsmith accused Khan of “pandering to extremists” and providing them “oxygen”.
Goldsmith’s “disgusting and slimy” campaign, as one voter put it, turned many voters away from the Conservative candidate and voted for Khan.
If confirmed, a Labour victory in London would be a major blow for Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives.
Vote counting for the Welsh Assembly, Northern Ireland Assembly, London Assembly and local elections are still underway.
However, Khan’s expected victory may be a lone bright spot for Labour in local elections in England, Scotland and Wales.
Opinion polls and voters suggested the Labour Party would lose seats in some traditional strongholds, which would be a blow to Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn.
“The Labour Party is in serious trouble, although the likely election of a Labour candidate to be London mayor will distract from that,” said Matthew Goodwin, politics professor at Kent University.
“The Labour Party is now third in Scotland for the first time since 1910 and it has failed to make a serious impression in southern England.”
With results in from 110 out of 124 councils, Labour had 55, down one, and 1,176 seats, down 25.
The Conservatives had control of an unchanged 30 councils and 650 seats, down 23.
According to a BBC projection, the Labour Party would receive 31 percent of the vote share nationally compared to 30 percent for the Conservatives.
Sadiq Khan was born on October 8, 1970 in London and have lived there all his life. His wife’s a Londoner too and they are raising their two daughters there. Their family story is one of how London has helped them succeed. His parents moved to London from Pakistan in the 1960s. His dad got a decent job as a bus driver and his parents were able to get an affordable council home so they could save a deposit to buy a place of their own. He and his brothers and sister all got a fantastic state-school education in Tooting and the opportunity to go on to higher or further education without having to run up huge debts. He got a university place based on his talent rather than his ability to pay. His brother got a high-quality apprenticeship. As a human rights lawyer, he defended people who were discriminated against, and ended up helping run a firm of 50 employees. He saw first-hand the impact discrimination can have on people’s lives – and this has made him determined to fight it wherever he see it. The Human Rights Act is one of the Labour Party’s proudest achievements and it apalls him that the Tories want to scrap it. In 2005 he was elected MP for Tooting and it was one of the proudest moments of his life. To represent the area where you grew up is a great privilege and one he have relished. His first ministerial post was as Minister for Community Cohesion, working with people of all faiths to promote greater understanding, including tackling anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. As Minister of Transport he became the first Muslim and first Asian to attend Cabinet. He was Crossrail Minister and helped ensure the project, which is vital to London’s transport needs, became a reality. He headed up the Labour Party campaign in London in the 2015 General Election. On what was a dark day for Labour across the country, in London they actually increased their vote and won seats from both the Tories and the Liberal Democrats. His life is not all politics. He spend as much time as he can with his family and he is lucky enough that his brothers and sister all still live near him in South London so he can see them quite a lot. Sadiq Khan is the Member of Parliament for Tooting, where he has lived all his life. He was first elected as MP for Tooting on 5th May 2005 and was re-elected on 6th May 2010. He is Shadow Lord Chancellor and Shadow Secretary of State for Justice (with responsibility for political and constitutional reform), having been elected to the Shadow Cabinet on October 7th 2010. In January 2013 Sadiq was appointed as the Shadow Minister for London, a position he holds as well as being Shadow Justice Secretary and Shadow Lord Chancellor. Previously the Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, Sadiq was the first ever BAME politician to be elected to the Labour Party’s Shadow Cabinet, and was the youngest member of Ed Miliband’s cabinet. He served in a number of ministerial posts during the last Labour Government. He is a member of the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee (NEC), the Labour Party’s governing and policy-making body. In June 2009 Sadiq was appointed to the Privy Council and was asked to attend Cabinet meetings, becoming both the first Asian and the first Muslim to do so.
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