Former shadow justice secretary beats other hopefuls including Tessa Jowell and David Lammy, underlining the party’s move to the left

Sadiq Khan, the former shadow justice secretary, has won the Labour nomination for the London mayoralty, underlining the extent to which the party has shifted to the left in recent months.



Khan, who comfortably beat off the challenge of Tessa Jowell, said he was overwhelmed, adding that he had never dreamed he would be standing as Labour candidate for mayor. “Like so many Londoners, I owe London everything,” he said.

Khan picked up 59% of the vote and it was clear he had won as soon as the first results showed that the votes of Khan and Diane Abbott combined would outnumber those for Lady Jowell. The results, announced at the Royal Festival Hall, suggest Jeremy Corbyn is going to sweep to victory in the national leadership ballot on Saturday.

Jowell had hoped her consensual style and reputation for helping to bring the Olympics to London in 2012 would be enough for her to see off the organisation of Khan and the leftward surge in the party. Khan will be relieved that in the final ballot he did not just win in the registered supporters and affiliated section, but also in the members section, giving him a solid mandate.

Jowell had argued that opinion polls showed she was best placed with the wider electorate to defeat the likely Conservative candidate, Zac Goldsmith, the wealthy environmentalist and MP for Richmond Park and North Kingston, next year.



The sudden growth in Labour party membership and the scale of his victory gives him a strong electoral machine, but much of the mainstream media will now side with Goldsmith, something Jowell would have prevented.

Labour selects Sadiq Khan as candidate for London mayor - Politics live Read more

It was thought that the surge in new members to the party since the election would benefit Khan, who was endorsed by Ken Livingstone, the former London mayor, who supports Corbyn in the national leadership vote. Khan nominated Corbyn to allow him into the contest, but supported Andy Burnham.

Khan said he would not stand down as MP for Tooting until he was elected mayor and that he opposed the third runway at Heathrow.

Khan defeated Jowell on the final ballot by 58.9% to 41.1% (48,152 to 33,573). He won in all three sections on the final round including in the full members section by 24,983 votes to 24,019 votes.

In the new registered supporters sector, where Londoners were allowed to vote in return for paying £3, Khan beat Jowell by 17,179 to 6,351 in the final round. In the first round of balloting, Jowell won only 4,400 votes from the £3 registered supporters, a very low score considering her national standing and support among Labour supporters in London. Abbott won 6,216 votes in the first round among this group.

Turnout among full members was 81%, registered supporters 92% and affiliated supporters just 45%.

In his acceptance speech, Khan said: “I am deeply humbled to have received the support of tens of thousands of Londoners. I am determined to repay that trust by winning the mayoral election next May and making a real difference to Londoners’ lives.

“London gave me and my family huge opportunities: a council house so we could save for a deposit to buy our own home, a secure job for my dad as a bus driver, a great education for me and my siblings, affordable university places and good quality apprenticeships.

“As mayor, I will provide more opportunities for all Londoners. My priorities for Londoners are clear: an affordable and secure home to rent or buy, more jobs with higher wages for the lowest paid, making it easier to set up and run a successful business, reducing the cost of commuting and making London’s environment safer, healthier and less polluted.”

Khan also beat Lammy, MP for Tottenham, Abbott, the leftwing MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, Christian Wolmar, the transport writer and activist, and Gareth Thomas, MP for Harrow West, who wanted to devolve more economic powers to London.

Central issues in the election next spring will be airport expansion in south-east England, housing and the powers of the mayor, but the personalities of the candidates will also play a critical role.



It means Corbyn will be much more closely associated with the Labour contest next year, in which Goldsmith and Khan will fight it out. There have been two competitng strategies inside the Labour party on how to win a mayoral contest in London: one is to win the suburbs, the approach favoured by Jowell; and the other is to put together a strong left coalition, the strategy favoured by Livingstone.

Friday’s result shows that the party membership in London is behind Corbyn’s politics and, contrary to expectations, turnout in the union-affilated section was quite high. Corbyn never endorsed Abbott, although she linked her voting record in the Commons to his and tried to ride on his coat tails.

Goldsmith prizes his independence from Downing Street, so both candidates are likely to make a virtue of their differences with their national leadership.

In previous London mayoral elections, the efficient Labour machine got out the vote in inner London but was unable to overcome strong Conservative support in the suburbs.

Khan said he had always believed he would win comfortably. “I never thought it was going to be a close race. I was always quietly confident,” he said.

Asked whether backing from Livingstone had swung the result for him, Khan said: “I’ve been blessed by having all kinds of endorsements from sorts of great people, Ken Livingstone, Margaret Hodge, Oona King, Michael Cashman. I am not tribal. If you see the people who are supporting me it is across the Labour spectrum.

“What I am pleased about is that I have won every single section of the vote: members, supporters, affiliated and registered as well.”

Khan praised Jowell as a formidable politician, but declined to say whether he would offer her a job if he won the mayoralty.