Elections 2021: Sadiq Khan pips Shaun Bailey in close-run battle for London mayor

Sadiq Khan was on course to win a second term as London mayor yesterday despite a far closer race than expected.

Khan had 39.8 per cent of the vote compared with Tory opponent Shaun Bailey’s 35.8 per cent at 6pm on Saturday, with most of the remaining boroughs expected to fall heavily in his favour. In 2016, Khan finished with 57 per cent to Zac Goldsmith’s 43 per cent.

Conservative turnout in some areas was so high that party sources said they had revised their assessment that London was now a “Labour city”.

In the London Assembly, the Conservatives gained Brent and Harrow, and Ealing and Hillingdon from Labour — boroughs with a combined population of more than 1.2 million people.

During the campaign, Khan