Was Sadiq Khan’s narrower-than-expected London Mayoral win due to Keir Starmer’s right turn?
Sadiq Khan said unflattering things about then-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn after his 2016 London mayoral victory. But at least Corbyn provided Labour policies for the public to support in the poll. Starmer put him in a vacuum and it is a miracle he received as many votes as he did.
Belated congratulations to Sadiq Khan on his re-election to the London Mayoralty.
But isn’t it disturbing that he won by a narrower margin than against Zac Goldsmith in 2016, against an equally inept candidate?
In the years preceding the election, Bailey had been criticised for racism (calling Khan “the Mad Mullah of Londonistan”, criticising celebration of Muslim and Hindu festivals and claiming that British people were being indoctrinated in the cultures of those religions).
He also proposed forcing larger London businesses to drug-test their employees – but with Parliament, dubbed the “corridors of powder” because of the huge “trace” amounts of cocaine that have been found there, exempt.
And he was accused of sexism as well as racism when it emerged that he had stated in 2006 that single girls in inner cities “deliberately become pregnant” in order to secure homes and benefits from the government.
Against such a man, Sadiq Khan gained more than 100,000 fewer votes than against Goldsmith.
I don’t think the drop-off was anything to do with Khan himself – or with his opponent, though.
I think it was about the leadership of Khan’s political party – Labour.
When he was elected in 2016, the people of London were riding high on the election of Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn to the leadership with a set of genuinely socialist policies that had the potential to transform the UK into a vibrant example for the world.
By 2021, Corbyn’s right-wing opponents in the Labour Party bureaucracy had stabbed him in the back and had him replaced with suit-haircut-and-flag man Keir Starmer, who had promptly ditched all of those transformative policies in favour of an “any way the wind blows” approach.
In the absence of any policy support from his party leadership, it is a miracle Khan received as many votes as he did.
Source: Sadiq Khan wins second term as London mayor despite tighter-than-expected race | The Independent
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Judging by the competition it was a contest to find the biggest village idiot and he won.