Labour Party's Sadiq Khan becomes London's first Muslim and ethnic minority mayor

MEMBER of Parliament for Tooting Sadiq Khan has become the first ethnic minority and Muslim mayor of London winning with 44% of the vote compared with 35% to that of his nearest rival Conservative Party billionaire Zac Goldsmith.

 

Representing the Labour Party, Mr Khan the son of a Pakistani bus driver and a seamstress, has won back London City Hall after it was in the control of the Conservative Party for eight years. He will take over from outgoing mayor Boris Johnson and has already been congratulated by the Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

 

Despite the smear campaign mounted against him, Mr Khan won with over 1.14m votes and managed to deflect criticism about his religious faith during a bitter feud in which Mr Goldsmith was accused of Islamophobia. Mr Goldsmith had accused Mr Khan of pandering to extremists and providing them oxygen.

 

It appears that Mr Goldsmith’s volatile campaign turned many voters away from the Conservative Party, which they saw as extremist.  Labour's victory in London is a major blow for Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party, who had been expecting to use it to revive their sagging popularity.