Sadiq Khan secures historic third term as Mayor of London after beating out Tory candidate Susan Hall
4 May 2024, 16:00 | Updated: 4 May 2024, 19:26
Sadiq Khan has secured a historic third term as the Mayor of London, beating out the Tory candidate Susan Hall.
Mr Khan won with 43.7% of the vote, while Ms Hall Conservative rival took 32.6%. Turnout was 40.5%, which is slightly down compared with 2021.
In total, Mr Khan amassed 1,088,225 votes, compared to Ms Hall's 811,518.
It means Mr Khan has become the first person to serve a third term as London Mayor.
Mr Khan was met with boos as he took to the stage after his re-election was announced.
Speaking at City Hall, Mr Khan said: "Thank you from the bottom of my heart, thank you London."
At that point, a man walked onto the stage and chanted "Khan killed London".
The crowd was warned that security would remove people who disrupt the speeches.
Conservative sources had initially suggested that it was possible Ms Hall had pulled off an upset.
Labour also admitted the race was tight, but once counting got under way at 9am this morning, it became clear Mr Khan had secured a historic third term.
There were significant swings from Conservative to Labour, including the North East (6.9%).
Ms Hall had hoped Mr Khan's Ulez expansion would increase her vote share in outer London.
However, Mr Khan won in South West London by 77,011 votes to Ms Hall's 68,856 votes.
Speaking before the result, leader of the Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer, said he was confident Mr Khan was the right candidate to lead London for another four years.
"Sadiq Khan was absolutely the right candidate," he said.
"He has got two terms of delivery behind him and I am confident that he has got another term of delivery in front of him," Starmer added.
Mr Khan ran his campaign on promises to provide free school meals for all children in London and make the capital city greener.
It comes after he expanded the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) to cover all of Greater London in August last year.
This was a move heavily criticised by Ms Hall, the Tory candidate, who promised to scrap the policy on day one if she wins.
Ms Hall was also heavily critical of Mr Khan's record on crime, particularly knife attacks, which have surged during his eight years in office.
In a mayoral hustings hosted by LBC last month, Mr Khan defended his approach to policing in London despite recent criticism of Sir Mark Rowley and the Met's handling of 'hate crimes' and divisive protests.
Mr Khan said he believed the Met police service is ahead of other police services and that Sir Mark is making "remarkable progress".
"He's got a new Met plan which is a journey to win back the trust and confidence of Londoners," he said.
He went on to say: "We are being tough on crime, supporting the police and tough on the complex causes of crime."That’s why homicides are down, gun crime is down, knife injury for those under 25 is down and burglaries are down.
"But Conservative mayoral candidate Susan Hall argued that: “London is in a very serious situation and we’ve got to make sure we recuperate the situation".