May 4, 2024 – 6:35 pm
Sadiq Khan has been re-elected Mayor of London, beginning his third term as leader of the city. Khan received 43.8 percent of the votes, while his rival, Susan Hall, who was launched by the ruling Conservative Party, received 32.7 percent.
Khan described the race between him and the Conservative Hall as close. Compared to 2021, according to the London Elects website, voter participation in the elections decreased by only 1.5 percent. The Labor Party, which fielded Khan, became confident of victory hours before the final result after it was revealed that they had managed to seize several other constituencies from the Conservatives.
The downfall of the Conservative Party in this year's election was interesting, if only because they introduced changes to the electoral system that they thought might harm Labour. So was the new rule requiring people to go to the polls with photo ID: the Electoral Commission had previously warned people that the law could disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of people, which could have a disproportionate impact on the results. In the end, the law also worked in favor of the Conservatives, for example, Conservative Boris Johnson was unable to vote for his party for the first time.
A Conservative MP from London criticized Hall's post-election campaign, which did not promise concrete things to voters and instead focused on anti-Khan.
The result in London came after Labor had scored several victories in the north of England as well: they awarded mayorships, for example, to Liverpool and Greater Manchester. On Friday, the first results already indicated a significant loss of seats for the ruling Conservative Party.
(MTI, guardian)
