(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth). Sadiq Khan, Labour Party candidate, speaks in front of Zac Goldsmith, Conservative Party candidate, after winning the London mayoral elections, at City Hall in London, Saturday, May 7, 2016.
Advertisement
Jeremy Corbyn is expected to address Labour MPs after being warned by Mr Khan that he must appeal to voters beyond the party’s core support.
Sayeeda Warsi, a former Conservative Party chairman, said the campaign had damaged the party’s reputation and credibility on issues of race and religion, while Labour politicians called on Fallon and Cameron to stop smearing their candidate.
He said Labour could win the next parliamentary election only if it started talking to those people who have left its ranks or were voting for the Conservative Party and smaller parties such as the anti-European Union UK Independence Party.
According to the Guardian’s Owen Jones, Goldsmith attempted to play to Londoners’ prejudices, repeatedly attempting to insinuate a link between Khan and Muslim extremists.
The former state minister for transport Khan, who is of Pakistani origin, became the first Muslim to hold the post.
London’s previous Labour Party mayor, Ken Livingstone, was suspended last in April from the party after he claimed that Adolf Hitler was a Zionist.
Khan’s father had migrated to London from Pakistan and drove London buses for 25 years.
It wasn’t just Goldsmith that linked Kahn’s ties Islamic extremism.
“I said from the outset, I’m embarrassed, I’m sorrowful about anti-Semitism in my party”, he added.
Khan’s role as Mayor may also help to quell rising feelings of anti-Islam in the nation.
“Londoners deserved better and I hope it’s something the Conservative Party will never try to repeat”.
Labour retained power in the Welsh assembly, although it lost one seat, and with 118 of 124 results declared, maintained all but one of its local councils in England.
Bilawal tweeted, “Congratulations @SadiqKhan for being elected mayor of London”.
Mr Corbyn insisted he and Mr Khan were “getting on fine”, despite him going to Bristol to congratulate that city’s new mayor Marvin Rees – instead of attending Mr Khan’s signing-in ceremony on Saturday.
Advertisement
“To have a Muslim mayor seems preferable to me to any alternative regardless of the politics”, said actor Sir Ian McKellen, who greeted Khan.
