Sadiq Khan was sworn-in as mayor of London on Saturday after being elected the first Muslim leader of a major western capital.
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Khan, the son of a Pakistani bus driver, beat Conservative Zac Goldsmith with 57 per cent votes-the largest mandate of any British politician in history-marking the return of Labour rule to the United Kingdom capital after eight years.
Britain’s incoming London Mayor Sadiq Khan with his wife Saadiya, during his swearing-in ceremony at Southwark Cathedral in cental London on Saturday.
Khan’s win seemed inevitable as all first preference votes were counted, giving him a 46 per cent vote share, nine points ahead of rival Zac Goldsmith. “I’m determined to lead the most transparent, engaged and accessible administration London has ever seen, and to represent every single community and every single part of our city as mayor for Londoners”.
The new Mayor signed the formal declaration watched by an array of faith leaders from around London, including the Bishops of Southwark and Woolwich and members of Southwark Cathedral’s clergy.
Conservatives including Prime Minister David Cameron and Fallon himself had sought to question whether London would be safe being run by the 45-year-old Kahn, a Labour Party lawmaker who grew up in public housing in the capital’s inner city.
Khan’s victory was confirmed shortly after midnight inside London’s futuristic glass and steel city hall. I am so proud of our city. “I want every single Londoner to get the opportunities that our city gave to me and my family”, Khan said.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo added on Twitter that Khan’s “humanity, progressivism will benefit Londoners”. “So that does suggest that despite all the challenges of being a Muslim in the West, a city like London sort of shrugs its shoulders and says, ‘He’s a mainstream politician'”.
Khan, a former human rights lawyer, became Britain’s first Muslim Cabinet minister in 2009 under Gordon Brown.
In a Facebook post, defeated Mr Goldsmith also congratulated Mr Khan and thanked “the hundreds of thousands of people who trusted me with their votes”.
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Khan’s 13.6 percent margin of victory over Goldsmith was the widest in a London mayoral election in 16 years, showing that a bitter campaign marred by accusations that Khan had links to extremists and charges of anti-Semitism within Labour ranks had failed to deter his voters. Similarly, his election received a hostile response from some in the U.S., where the influential Drudge Report website described him as the “First Muslim Mayor of Londonistan” and he was called “an Islamist” by one major TV network. A prominent figure in former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Cabinet, he resigned from the shadow Cabinet previous year to launch his campaign to replace Boris Johnson – whose second and final term ended on Friday. I’ve got bigger things to worry about than Zac Goldsmith’s campaign.
