London mayoral victory a hammer blow to forlorn Tories

London’s Labour mayor Sadiq Khan has secured a record third term as the party trounced the ruling Conservatives in local elections just months before a general poll.

Labour mayor Sadiq Khan waves from the balcony of City Hall after winning an historic third term in office in the London mayoral election. Picture: Getty Images

London’s Labour mayor Sadiq Khan has secured a record third term as the party swept a host of mayoral races and local elections to trounce the ruling Conservatives just months before a general election.

Mr Khan, 53, defeated Tory challenger Susan Hall by 11 points to scupper largely forlorn Tory hopes that they could prise the capital away from Labour for the first time since 2016.

The first Muslim mayor of a Western capital, he had been widely ­expected to win as the ­opposition party surges nationally and the Tories struggle to revive their fortunes.

Hours later in the West Midlands, Conservative mayor Andy Street – bidding for his own third term – unexpectedly lost to the ­Labour candidate, dealing a hammer blow to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

In a dismal set of results, Mr Sunak’s party finished Thursday’s vote a humiliating third in local council counts after losing nearly 500 seats.

“People across the country have had enough of Conservative chaos and decline and voted for change with Labour,” party leader Keir Starmer said. He called the result “phenomenal” and “beyond our expectations”.

UK Labour leader Keir Starmer speaks during a post local election rally in Mansfield, central England, on Saturday. Picture: AFP

Writing earlier in Saturday’s Daily Telegraph, Mr Sunak had conceded “voters are frustrated” but tried to argue Labour was “not winning in places they admit they need for a majority”.

“We Conservatives have everything to fight for,” he insisted.

Labour, out of power since 2010 and trounced by Boris Johnson’s Conservatives at the last general election in 2019, also emphatically snatched a parliamentary seat from the Tories.

Mr Sunak, who must order a national vote be held by January 28 at the latest, has said he is planning on a poll in the second half of this year.

Labour has enjoyed double-digit poll leads for all of his 18 months in charge, as previous Tory scandals, a cost-of-living ­crisis and various other issues dent his party’s standing.

On Thursday, it was defending nearly 1000 council seats, many secured in 2021 when it led ­nationwide polls before the implosion of Mr Johnson’s premiership and his successor Liz Truss’s disastrous 49-day tenure.

In the end, they lost close to half and finished third behind the smaller centrist opposition Liberal Democrats.

Meanwhile, Labour swept crunch mayoral races across ­England, from Yorkshire, Manchester and Liverpool in the north to contests across the Midlands.

In London, Mr Khan netted 44 per cent of the vote and ­increased his margin of victory from 2021.

“It’s truly an honour to be ­re-elected for a third term,” he told supporters, accusing his Tory ­opponent of “fearmongering”.

“We ran a campaign that was in keeping with the spirit and values of this great city, a city that ­regards our diversity not as a weakness but as an almighty strength – and one that rejects right-wing populism.”

If replicated in a nationwide contest, the council tallies suggested Labour would win 34 per cent of the vote, with the Tories trailing by nine points, according to the BBC.

Sky News’s projection for a general election using the results predicted Labour would be the largest party but still short of a majority.

Speculation has been rife in Westminster that restive Tory MPs could use dire local election results to try to replace Mr Sunak.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Darlington, England, on Saturday. Picture: Getty Images

Former interior minister and Sunak critic Suella Braverman warned in the Sunday Telegraph that his plan “is not working and he needs to change course”, urging a more muscular conservatism. She cautioned against trying to replace him, warning “changing leader now won’t work: the time to do so came and went”.

Meanwhile, polling expert John Curtice assessed there were some concerning signs for ­Labour, which lost control of one local authority and some councillors elsewhere reportedly over its stand on the Israel-Hamas war.

“These were more elections in which the impetus to defeat the Conservatives was greater than the level of enthusiasm for ­Labour,” Mr Curtice said. “Electorally, it is still far from clear that Sir Keir Starmer is the heir to (Tony) Blair.”

AFP