Writing for the Mirror on the eve of local elections in London, Sadiq Khan asks ‘people tempted to switch their vote away from our party to lend their local Labour councillors their support once again’
Tomorrow, millions of Londoners will head to the polls. In schools, sports halls and community centres across the capital, they’ll cast their votes to decide who gets to govern London’s 32 boroughs for the next four years.
This is an important moment. In the last decade, I’ve worked closely with Labour councils in London to make our city a fairer, greener, safer, and more prosperous place for everyone.
We’ve made getting around London faster, safer, easier, and cheaper with the Elizabeth Line, the Night Tube, the Superloop, and the Hopper bus fare. At the same time, the ULEZ has helped us to get the levels of toxic nitrogen dioxide in our air within legal limits – almost 200 years before the experts said we would.
Since we set up England’s first Violence Reduction Unit in 2019, we’ve provided over 550,000 positive opportunities to prevent our young people from getting caught up in crime – helping to bring our city’s per capita homicide rate down to the lowest level in recorded history. We’ve put record funding into bringing back youth clubs in every borough, and we’ve delivered universal free school meals for all of London’s state primary school students – sparing the capital’s kids the agonising ache of hunger in the classroom.
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These aren’t just good policies – they’re Labour policies. They would never have been possible without the partnership of Labour councils who share Londoners’ belief in a better future for the city they love.
From Haringey to Hackney, Lambeth to Lewisham, and Wandsworth to Waltham Forest, it’s Labour councils who are leading the fight to make London more affordable for everyone. Last year, Labour-run Southwark built more council homes than any other local authority in the country.
In London, Labour has a record to be proud of. This week, though, it’s all at risk. A bad night in the capital wouldn’t just put a decade of progress in peril – it could splinter progressive politics across the country. The only person who stands to benefit from that is Nigel Farage, a man who – rather than promising real solutions to the problems our city faces – offers only fear and hatred.
I understand why voters are frustrated with the pace of change. Like their counterparts across the country, London’s borough councils have not yet recovered from the catastrophic impact of a decade and a half of Tory cuts. But, this week, I ask people tempted to switch their vote away from our party to lend their local Labour councillors their support once again.
Ensuring we have Labour councils that can work with me as Mayor is the best way we can continue to change Londoners’ lives for the better, and build a fairer, greener, safer, and more prosperous London for everyone.