Nick Tyrone
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This isn’t the only thing about Khan’s win that makes life easier for the Tories than if Bailey had triumphed. A Labour-dominated London allows Boris to suggest the opposition party represents rich Londoners but doesn’t speak for those who live far from the capital. Boris has already repeatedly taunted Keir Starmer as being an ‘Islington lawyer’. Having a Labour mayor will only bolster Boris’s attacks.
Over the coming years, Khan is likely to make matters worse for his party. He will double down on trying to appeal to younger, inner city voters as opposed to bothering much with those further out of the city centre who are more likely to have backed Bailey. Khan’s upcoming review of statues in London is a case in point. If statues end up coming down, Boris and the Tories will be delighted. In the midst of voters’ rising fears about crime or the economic effects of the pandemic, it isn’t a good look for the Labour party to be concerning itself with whether street furniture is representative.
As Khan dabbles in identity politics, he will allow the Tories to position themselves even further as the party of the Red Wall, with Labour placed more in the metropolitan champagne socialist bucket than they already are. As Keir Starmer tries to wrap himself in the Union flag, Sadiq Khan will be resisting this rebranding exercise. As has been shown by the dire election results, Starmer already has his work cut out trying to reshape his party. Khan’s attempts to continue to woo young Londoners is unlikely to help him.
So while the Tories came closer than expected to beating Khan, it seems likely that they won’t be too unhappy that Bailey missed out. The Tories can continue to talk up the stark contrast between Khan’s red London bubble and the rest of England, bar a few other large metropolitan areas like Liverpool and Manchester. They can effectively say to voters outside the capital: ‘Are you with us or that lot in London who look down on you all?’. Khan’s victory might be good news for him – but it’s hard to see that it will ultimately do much to alleviate the troubling spot his party has found itself in.
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