Sadiq Khan will serve as London mayor for another four years
The people of London have seen Sadiq Khan re-elected as London mayor for a second term, which will see him hold the post for a further four years.
The Labour candidate won 69 per cent (nice) of second preference votes, having failed to win a majority in the first round of voting.
The Green Party’s Sian Berry came third, ahead of the Liberal Democrats’ Luisa Porrit in fourth. YouTuber Niko Omilana secured fifth place, ahead of Laurence Fox and Brian Rose.
Early estimations had already suggested that Khan would win, with Opinium predicting around 48%; however, the competition tightened up after the first round of voting, as he sat just two per cent ahead of Conservative candidate, Shaun Bailey’s 37% at around 5pm on Friday evening.
With the remaining constituencies – Barnet and Camden, City and East, Croydon and Sutton; Enfield and Haringey, Greenwich and Lewisham, Merton and Wandsworth, as well as South West – being tallied up early Saturday morning, the gap began to fluctuate ever so slightly.
It was reported around 11:30 on Saturday by the Evening Standard that Khan had opened up a gap of nearly 25,000 votes over Bailey. While not necessarily home and dry at this point, given the turnout, things did start to look like a foregone conclusion.
The final confirmation came at 11pm, two and a half hours after it was expected.
Khan, 50, spoke to JOE ahead of polling day, and discussed everything from which politician he’d like to box, to the time he had a joint in Amsterdam.
Watch more of In My DMs: https://t.co/H1BggYLqsi
— PoliticsJOE (@PoliticsJOE_UK) May 5, 2021
This year’s election featured the most candidates ever, with numerous independents joining the race, including YouTubers, Niko Omilana Max Fosh and Brian Rose – the lattermost of which we also interviewed at the end of April.
