LONDON (Reuters) - Sadiq Khan, the son of a bus driver, became London's first Muslim mayor on Saturday, seeing off a Conservative challenger who attempted to link him to extremism and securing a much-needed win for his opposition Labour Party.
Khan's victory, which also makes him the first Muslim to head a major Western capital, was confirmed shortly after midnight inside London's futuristic glass and steel city hall following a day of mixed news for Labour in elections elsewhere in the country.
Dealt a crushing blow in Scotland, where it came third behind the Scottish National Party and Britain's ruling Conservatives, Labour did better than expected in England, saving its left-leaning leader from an early challenge.
But the big prize was the London mayor vote, which pitted Khan, 45, who grew up in public housing in inner city London, against Conservative Zac Goldsmith, 41, the son of a billionaire financier.
"This election was not without controversy and I am so proud that London has today chosen hope over fear and unity over division," Khan said in a short speech after the results.
"I hope that we will never be offered such a stark choice again. Fear does not make us safer, it only makes us weaker and the politics of fear is simply not welcome in our city."
So proud to be a Londoner. In such turbulent and divided times this shows that we're still one of the most diverse and forward places in the world. Hope he proves his critics wrong and does an amazing job
ISIS will have an hard time explaining this to their proselytes in the Western countries. They are all about european people hating muslins. But London, the biggest city in Europe, has just chosen a muslin as a mayor.
Does anyone know any more about this? What happened?
Zac Goldsmith was his main rival and he tried slandering Sadiq's image by accusing him of indirectly supporting extremism because he was friends with a muslim preacher who is an extremist and wants gays to die.
The islamisation of Europe is going well, I see...
Europe is supposed to be a land were everybody is free to have their own faith. I am glad that a Muslin can be mayor in our biggest city. It's called progress.
The islamisation of Europe is going well, I see...
Quite confused with this statement seeing as he doesn't at all support the teachings of radical Islam? He gave continual public support for the legalisation of gay marriage, voting in favour of it, despite him and his family receiving death threats for doing so. So let's not post ignorance for the sake of it hm?
