Sadiq Khan wins record third term as Mayor of London
London, May 4: Sadiq Khan on Saturday registered a decisive victory to secure a record third term as Mayor of London, as the local election results from England and Wales continued to reflect a strong swing in favour of the Opposition Labour Party.
The 53-year-old Pakistani-origin Labour candidate secured a massive 10,88,225 votes with a 43.8 per cent vote share, well ahead of the Conservative candidate Susan Hall’s 8,12,397 votes – an impressive majority of over 2,75,000.
Delhi-born businessman Tarun Ghulati, contesting as an independent candidate among a total 13 mayoral candidates, secured 24,702 votes and came in tenth in the overall tally.
“I am beyond humbled right now and express my deep gratitude to my fellow Londoners, and make this pledge to you: I promise to repay the trust you’ve placed in me by working tirelessly to deliver the fairer, safer and greener, London you deserve,” said Khan in his acceptance speech from the London mayoral headquarters of City Hall.
“It’s been a difficult few months, we faced a campaign of non-stop negativity, but I couldn’t be more proud that we answered fear mongering with facts, hate with hope, and attempts to divide with efforts to unite. We ran a campaign that was in keeping with the spirit and values of this great city, a city that regards our diversity, not as a weakness, but an almighty strength,” he said, taking aim at some of the rhetoric from the Opposition.
“It is truly an honour to be elected for a third term and to do so with record levels of support from Londoners, with an increased margin of victory. But today’s not about making history, it’s about shaping our future,” he added.
Earlier, Khan’s own camp and the BBC had already called the election in favour of Khan as borough-wise results poured in for the UK capital to show that he was on course to beat his nearest Conservative Party rival, Susan Hall, with a strong voter swing in favour of Labour.
Significantly, the UK capital’s Muslim population did not seem to have punished the Labour Mayor for his party’s failure to strongly condemn Israel over the Gaza conflict in the same way as other parts of the country had. Some of Khan’s controversial policies, such as the high costs on drivers of vehicles falling under the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) tariff bracket as part of his anti-pollution drive for London, also did not result in a major dent in his overall popularity.
“Sadiq Khan was absolutely the right candidate. He has got two terms of delivery behind him and I am confident that he has got another term of delivery in front of him,” said Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer just before the results were declared.
The role of London Mayor represents the 8.9 million people living across the capital and has a budget of GBP 20.4 billion and is responsible for Transport for London (TfL) and has some control over roads, policing and housing in the city. Londoners also went to the polls on Thursday to vote for one of 14 local representatives on the London Assembly and 11 London wide Assembly members who hold the Mayor of London accountable.
The Labour Party continued its winning streak in most of the local elections, seen as reflective of the electorate’s mood ahead of a general election expected later this year. Popular Labour incumbent Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham was re-elected with 63 per cent of the vote, who committed to get right back to work to see through his transport reforms and called for more powers over welfare and housing.
“I am ready to fight harder than I have ever fought for anything before, for a Greater Manchester where people can live free from the fear of debt, hunger and eviction, and where everyone is set up to benefit from the growing success of our city region today,” said Burnham in his victory speech.
Earlier, the party won the Liverpool City Region and South Yorkshire mayoral races, the North East mayoralty, as well as the brand-new mayoralty of East Midlands.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who was handed a glimmer of hope on Friday with Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen retaining the seat for the Conservatives, will be hoping Birmingham’s Tory Mayor Andy Street is able to win a contest that has been on a knife-edge between the Conservatives and Labour – with a recount ordered due to the results being too close to call.
However, any immediate manoeuvres by the Tory rebels to try and challenge Sunak’s leadership seems to have been averted for the moment as there isn’t much appetite for another upheaval in the party ranks.
An analysis of the local election results by BBC’s polling expert Professor John Curtice suggests that Labour is now in pole position to win the general election, with the local elections extrapolated to a national level giving the Opposition a comfortable lead.
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BMW hit-and-run case: HC refuses to release accused Mihir Shah on ground of 'illegal' arrest
Mumbai (PTI): The Bombay High Court on Monday refused to release Mihir Shah, the main accused in a BMW hit-and-run case, on the ground of "illegal" arrest.
Shah, the 24-year-old son of a former Shiv Sena leader, and his driver Rajrishi Bidawat had filed petitions in the HC claiming they have been illegally detained and sought immediate release.
Shah was arrested on July 9, two days after he allegedly rammed his BMW car into a two-wheeler in Mumbai's Worli area, killing 45-year-old woman Kaveri Nakhwa and leaving her husband Pradeep injured.
His driver Bidawat, who was also present in the car at the time of the accident, was arrested on the day of the incident.
As per their pleas, the police had not informed them the grounds of their arrest at the time, which they claimed was in violation of the law.
A division bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande on Monday dismissed the petitions.
"Both the petitions are dismissed," the court said.
The duo sought their release, claiming any further detention would be in utter violation of the constitutional mandate and a failure to comply with Section 50 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Under this section, the police, while arresting a person, have to communicate to him/her full particulars of the offence for which he/she is being arrested or other grounds for such arrest.
Both Shah and Bidawat are presently in judicial custody.
In their habeas corpus (produce the person) petitions filed in the HC in August, Shah and Bidawat claimed their detention was illegal and sought that they be released immediately.
Shah, in the plea, sought quashing of the orders passed by a local court remanding him first in police custody and then judicial custody.
He also sought for his arrest to be declared as illegal.
Shah is accused of speeding off towards the Bandra Worli Sea Link after the accident, even as the woman remained on the bonnet of the car and then got entangled in its wheels, for a distance of more than 1.5 kilometres.
As per police, Shah, who fled from the scene, was under the influence of alcohol at the time.
Mihir Shah's father and former Shiv Sena leader Rajesh Shah had also been arrested in the case, but was later granted bail.
