London (dpa/PA Media) – Labour’s Sadiq Khan has been re-elected as Mayor of London in a closer contest for the capital than many had predicted.
Opinion polls had suggested his Conservative rival Shaun Bailey would be a distant second in the race for City Hall.
Khan took 1,206,034 votes after second preferences were taken into account, compared to Bailey at 977,601.
It was announced Khan had won a second term at 11 pm (2200 GMT) on Saturday, amid earlier suggestions that the declaration would be delayed until Sunday.
The result will be a glimmer of hope to the Labour Party after it received a drubbing in local elections in England, losing control of a host of councils and a humiliating defeat in the Hartlepool by-election.
«Thank you London. It’s the absolute honour of my life to serve the city I love for another three years,» Khan tweeted. «I’ll leave no stone unturned to get our city back on its feet. A brighter future is possible, and we’ll deliver it together.»
Khan was first elected mayor of the capital in 2016 in a landslide victory, breaking the Conservatives’ eight-year hold on City Hall.