Naming of Goldsmith sets up contest between aristocratic MP for Richmond Park with Labour’s Sadiq Khan, the son of a bus driver

Zac Goldsmith has been named as the Conservative candidate for London mayor, setting up a fascinating personal and political fight with the Labour candidate Sadiq Khan.



The MP for Richmond Park, a strong environmentalist, Eurosceptic and opponent of Heathrow expansion, won a ballot with 70.6% of the vote. He is likely to associate himself with Boris Johnson’s mayoralty, but demonstrate independence from the national Conservative administration.

The contest will be one of the the first major electoral tests for Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour party, alongside the annual round of local elections and the fight for the Scottish parliament.

A total of 87,884 voted in the Labour London mayoral primary and 9,227 in the Conservative equivalent, suggesting at least in theory Khan has a larger army of party doorstep activists on which to call than Goldsmith.

Goldsmith said he wanted to build on Johnson’s legacy, but warned that there were “ increasing pressures on our city” because of its financial success.



“We have seen record investment in our transport network, but we will need to continue that investment just to avoid grinding to a halt – while at the same time continuing to bear down on the cost of travel so that it delivers value for money for Londoners,” he said.

“Our living environment is facing increasing pressure, and we will need to protect, enhance and improve access to our green spaces, as well as radically improving the quality of the air that we breathe. But the biggest challenge of all is the housing crisis. Londoners are being priced out of their city and we will need a step change in the number of homes built, and the manner in which they are built.”

Khan immediately challenged Goldsmith to say if he supported the government’s housing bill, saying it would make London’s housing shortage worse.

Goldsmith said he was a supporter of the right to buy for housing association tenants, so long as it worked for Londoners, and any receipts from sales remained in the capital.

He added that he did not think his background would be a factor in the election and insisted he was a Euro-sceptic who was happy to wait to see what reforms David Cameron brought back from his negotiations with the European Union.



Goldsmith defeated three rivals in a ballot that allowed anyone over 18 and living in London to vote for £1 if they chose to do so.



His rivals were MEP Syed Kamall, an academic and the leader of the Conservative and Reformists group in the European parliament, Stephen Greenhalgh, former leader of Hammersmith council, and Andrew Boff, the leader of the Conservative group on the Greater London authority. Goldsmith was the favourite to win the contest as soon as he declared.

Goldsmith received 6,514 votes, Kamall 1,477 (16% of the total), Greenhalgh 864 (9.4%) and Boff 372 (4%).

The mayoral contest thus pits the aristocratic and wealthy Goldsmith against Khan, the Muslim son of a bus driver. Neither is a household name in the way Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson were in the contest four years ago, but both are skilful and fluent politicians. If Goldsmith has the greater passion, he is prone to making mistakes, such as proposing a large scale expansion of the congestion charge only to backtrack later.



London mayoral race: is Zac Goldsmith a 'proper Tory'? Read more

Both men oppose Heathrow airport expansion, but the decision does not rest with the London mayor.

Khan is the bookies’ favourite and is hoping the diversity and age profile of London voters will benefit him and even galvanise some non-voters to back him. Despite failing elsewhere, Labour achieved one of its best ever results in London in the general election in May, increasing its share of the vote from 37% to 44%. In contrast the suburbs, traditionally the Tory stronghold in London, saw Conservatives stack up larger majorities, so it is unlikely any third political party will play a great role.



Khan has already insisted he is different from Corbyn and faces a battle to reassure the City of London that Corbynomics, including a potential financial transaction tax, would not be a threat. He will point to Goldsmith’s Euroscepticism, warning that this would be a greater threat to London than his party leader’s views.



Khan – who surprisingly defeated Tessa Jowell for the Labour nomination – has promised to make the contest a referendum on housing in London. His aides have pledged that he will not focus on class and say he will be the most pro-business mayor London has had. He also has a vast army of new activists recruited to the party as a result of Corbyn’s election, and it will be interesting to see how active and effective these new recruits prove to be. Many of Corbyn’s most senior staff come from London politics, and understand its electorate.

Goldsmith has been an advocate of community permission for new homes and has been a supporter of the influential pressure group Create Streets, which campaigns for more traditional housing and less high-rise building.

Khan is more ambivalent about high-rise construction, saying it has a place in London but would oppose its extension along the Thames.

For Goldsmith, improved housing standards mean on the whole, “not giant, alienating tower blocks, [but] high-density, low-rise”.

“There is one thing above all others that I’m determined to do for our city,” he said. “And that is to make it more affordable to buy or rent a home of your own. That’s why I’m going to make the election in May a referendum on London’s housing crisis.”

Khan, who has been MP for Tooting since 2005, said London’s housing crisis had been brewing for a long time. “Successive governments have failed to build the homes we need. But let’s be clear – it has got so much worse under the Tories in City Hall and in government,” he said.

“They’ve failed to build the homes that Londoners need. They’ve let the big developers off the hook when it comes to building affordable homes. They’ve let flats be sold off to overseas investors to use as gold bricks instead of to Londoners who need them.”

Khan will be hoping his campaign does not face the same aggressive coverage by the Evening Standard suffered by Livingstone in 2012.