Sadiq Khan eyes up a third term as Labour’s London mayor

Sadiq Khan has been confirmed as Labour’s candidate for the 2024 mayoral election after having made it through the ‘trigger ballot’ process. If Khan wins again, he will be the first mayor to serve three terms; Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone each served two. Khan described the next election as an opportunity for Londoners to “send a message” to the Conservatives, “not only for crashing the economy, but for their anti-London approach, the damage they’re doing to our public services, their refusal to take national action to tackle the climate emergency, and their appalling attempts to stoke division between our communities for political gain”.

Labour is expected to retain the mayoralty. Nationally, the opposition is still enjoying a large lead in the polls over the Tories and London is a stronghold for Labour. Khan secured 39.8% of first preferences in the last election, winning in the second round of counting with 55.2% of the vote. The incumbent warned today, however, that 2024 will be a “tough election”. And two things will make the next vote for the capital’s mayor different to the last: 1) the election will be decided for the first time using a first-past-the-post voting system; and 2) voters will have to produce photographic identification, a move that is expected to disproportionately impact Labour voters.

Elsewhere in Labour news, it was confirmed yesterday that Mish Rahman will fill the Constituency Labour Party (CLP) representative position on the national executive committee (NEC) left vacant after the expulsion of Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi. Rahman returns to the party’s governing body after having first been elected to the NEC in 2020. He ran again in the 2022 NEC election but was unsuccessful. Rahman stood for re-election on the Momentum-backed Grassroots Voice slate, which also included Yasmine Dar, Gemma Bolton and Jess Barnard – all of whom were elected to the NEC in September.

Today is the last day before the Commons’ recess and will see Rishi Sunak grilled by the liaison committee. This will be the first time a Prime Minister has been in front of the committee since the dying days of Boris Johnson’s premiership – during that session, the then Prime Minister was informed that a delegation of his cabinet was waiting in Downing Street to tell him that he should resign. Today will probably be less spicy.

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