Dawn Butler will this week announce her bid to become Labour’s candidate in the 2028 London mayoral election.
If selected, she will succeed three-term winner Sadiq Khan who has served as Mayor of London for the past decade.
Khan is yet to declare whether he will run for a fourth time, and is understood to be undecided, PoliticsJOE reports.
The announcement is expected to be made at a Labour Women’s fundraising event this coming Wednesday in Central London.
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While applications are open to any candidate who meets the eligibility criteria and secures endorsements from local Labour branches and unions, the party’s ruling National Executive Committee and central office have final say.
It’s understood the Brent South MP has secured several high-profile backers, including the support of the coveted GMB union and a hefty pot of donations.
Dawn Butler is a prominent Labour MP known for her campaigning on social justice, policing and betting shops. First elected to Parliament in 2005, she served in government under Gordon Brown and later became Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary under Jeremy Corbyn.
She was not reappointed under Keir Starmer.
Butler rose to prominence for her campaign against misinformation during Boris Johnson’s premiership, having famously been ejected from the House of Commons in 2021 after accusing then-Prime Minister Johnson of lying to Parliament.
Politically, Butler sits on the left-flank of the Labour Party but positions herself as an internal critic rather than outright opponent of Starmer’s premiership.
Government minister Georgia Gould is Downing Street’s rumoured favourite for the Mayoral candidacy.
Her father, the late Lord Gould of Brookwood, served as Director of Communications for Peter Mandelson and led Tony Blair’s strategy for “New Labour” modernisation through successive elections.
Georgia Gould’s first foray into politics began as a newborn, when she was held atop Labour leader Neil Kinnock on the Election 1987 cover of Private Eye.
Her rise through the ranks at Camden Council was publicly hailed by Lord Mandelson, Alastair Campbell and Fiona Millar.
Earlier this year in an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain, the former Council leader said she has been “devastated” by the conduct of her friend Peter Mandelson.
“He’s been somebody I’ve known for my whole life,” she said. “I’ve been profoundly shocked and devastated by what I’ve read”.
Lord Mandelson was sacked as the UK’s ambassador to the US last year over his ties to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and is under criminal investigation over allegations he passed market-sensitive government information to Epstein.
Foreseeing a change in Prime Minister, it’s unlikely Gould will look for selection.
There is no rule preventing someone from being both an MP and a mayoral candidate at the same time. However, Butler would need to relinquish her seat in the House of Commons if elected, triggering a by-election.
It’s unclear whether Gould would stay on as government minister if she were to run for mayoral selection.
The Labour selection will run against Reform candidate and regular GB News contributor Laila Cunningham. The Westminster City Councillor defected from the Conservative Party last year and has been a vocal critic of incumbent mayor Sadiq Khan.
Cunningham has said she has a “different message” for Londoners. Speaking at a Reform press conference earlier this year, she told reporters “There will be a new sheriff in town, and I’ll be launching an all-out war on crime.”
The Conservative Party is yet to announce a candidate. Their previous hopeful was the London Assembly Member Susan Hall, who lost to Sadiq Khan by an astonishing 200,000 votes.