Labour’s Sadiq Khan has pledged to “build bridges” between City Hall and the Government after being re-elected as Mayor of London in a closer contest for the capital than many had predicted.
Labour incumbent Mr Khan took 1,206,034 votes – 55.2 per cent of the vote – after second preferences were taken into account, compared to second place Mr Bailey at 977,601.
But it was further back in the field where some amusing tales could be found.
Fox
Laurence Fox, who set up his Reclaim Party to run in the race and campaigned on a platform of scrapping the coronavirus lockdown, won 47,634 ballot papers – 1.9 per cent of votes – in Thursday’s election.
As a result, he lost his £10,000 deposit paid to London Elects, the Greater London Authority team responsible for organising the election of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly.
To be fair he wasn’t the only candidate to lose his deposit. Liberal Democrat Luisa Porritt, Piers Corbyn, Count Binface, Mandu Reid of the Womens’ Equality Party, and Peter Gammons of Ukip also lost ten big ones each.
Fox was criticised for his attacks on Mr Khan during his election campaign, even calling the Mayor ashamed to be British, when he said: “Someone needs to unlock London now, and I can tell you one thing: Sadiq Khant. And Sadiq Won’t. Sadiq Khan is ashamed to be British.”
In the end Fox finished in sixth place behind Niko Omilana, whose manifesto included ideas such as “all racists will have their teeth removed”, “to have to price of Fredos lowered back to 5p” and “to introduce stop and serve, which will include free school meals”.
Before we get to Khan’s response a number of other people had their say on Twitter about his race for London’s top job.
1.
Second fact of the day:
— Dot Cottan’s Line of Duty (@DCottan) May 9, 2021
More people were suspected of being ‘H’ than voted for Laurence Fox.#Lineofduty
2.
Nadia Almada received more votes to win Big Brother than Laurence Fox got in his mayoral bid. pic.twitter.com/2kQ1x24OSv
— Liam-James ? (@Liam_James_) May 8, 2021
3.
There are more Pret A Mangers in London than people who voted for Laurence Fox.
— TechnicallyRon (@TechnicallyRon) May 8, 2021
4.
There are more Pret A Mangers in London than people who voted for Laurence Fox.
— TechnicallyRon (@TechnicallyRon) May 8, 2021
5.
— TechnicallyRon (@TechnicallyRon) May 8, 2021
Khan
Khan has taken his fair share of abuse from Fox, and other candidates, so he sent a cheeky Tweet about Fox’s performance at the ballot box after someone tweeted: “Billie Piper sold more copies of Because We Want To in its opening week than Laurence Fox got votes for London Mayor.”
It is a great tune tbh.
— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) May 9, 2021
Reactions
1.
??? pic.twitter.com/BmnY8KHFPk
— Sharon (@SharonAWilliams) May 10, 2021
2.
— michael chakraverty (@mschakraverty) May 9, 2021
3.
Third degree burn! pic.twitter.com/y2kPHkxcXe
— Snigdha #VivaWoke (@snigskitchen) May 10, 2021
4.
— AOS (@AOS_84) May 10, 2021
5.
??? pic.twitter.com/BmnY8KHFPk
— Sharon (@SharonAWilliams) May 10, 2021
Related: Laurence Fox and Richard Tice to open a pub serving ‘only British food’
