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Labour Wins London
The election of London's first ethnic minority mayor, Sadiq Khan, has tilted the political compass of the city in favour of the Labour Party. Does his election to offi ce herald a progressive future for British politics?
In a pamphlet published by Sadiq Khan in 2008 for the Fabian Society (Khan, Jameson and Katwala 2008) he says, “I did not come into Parliament to be a Muslim MP… I am Labour first and foremost. I am also a Fabian, a father, a husband, a Londoner….” He repeated the same statement in 2016 when he first declared that he was standing for London mayor with a campaign slogan “A Mayor for All Londoners.”
Khan’s ascendancy to British politics and his subsequent election in a voting system, which gives him a personal mandate unmatched even by the Prime Minister of Great Britain (David Cameron got 35,201 votes from his Witney constituency in 2015 general election), is a political fairytale surpassing the legendary tale of Dick Whittington and his cat.