Sadiq Khan has been re-elected for an historic third term, bagging the second-largest majority in the history of the London mayoralty in the process.
The Labour incumbent won 1,088,225 votes – a majority of 275,828 over his main rival, Tory candidate Susan Hall.
Only Mr Khan, in first becoming mayor in 2016, has won by a bigger total – and that was under a two-vote system, rather than the traditional first-past-the-post system used in the 2024 elections.
Mr Khan’s aides described it as a “landslide win” and said he had claimed 44 per cent of the vote – up on 40 per cent in 2021.
By comparison, Ms Hall won fewer votes than her Tory predecessor Shaun Bailey achieved in 2021.
Mr Khan becomes the first London mayor to win a third term of office, which will see him in power at City Hall until 2028.
Mr Khan defied expectations to outpoll his Conservative rival in two key constituencies where Tories previously dominated – West Central, comprising Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, and Hammersmith and Fulham, and South West, which covers Richmond, Kingston and Hounslow.
Of the 14 constituencies, Ms Hall only polled more votes than Mr Khan in five - Bexley and Bromley, Havering and Redbridge, Croydon and Sutton, Ealing and Hillingdon and her home turf of Brent and Harrow.
About 2.5m Londoners cast a ballot – with the turnout falling slightly from 42 per cent three years ago to 40.5 per cent.
On the eve of polling day, Mr Khan had predicted a “very close two-horse race” and said he would be content with any margin of victory, declaring “a win is a win”.
But as votes from each of the constituencies were declared on Saturday afternoon, it became clear that Mr Khan had achieved a commanding victory in a contest that had included occasional ill feeling between the two main candidates.
At one debate, Mr Khan described Ms Hall as the “most dangerous” political rival he had faced.
She had focused her campaign on scrapping the Ulez expansion “on day one” of a Tory mayoralty, the rise in violent crime and on criticising Mr Khan’s oversight of the Met police.
But Mr Khan’s aides claimed his victory was a vote for free school meals – his landmark policy – plus increasing efforts to build more council homes and making London greener.
