Khan Wins London Mayoralty

It was nice to see Sadiq Khan overwhelmingly elected to be London's mayor, overcoming smears from his Conservative opponent and becoming the first Muslim elected to that post.  In a total repudiation of the Tory "dog-whistle" campaign that continually tried to tie Mr. Khan to Muslim extremists, the Labour candidate won an overwhelming victory by nearly 15%.  Even some Conservatives thought the campaign of their candidate, Zac Goldsmith, was reprehensible and will quite possibly hurt the party going forward.

Elsewhere around the United Kingdom, Conservatives lost nearly 50 council seats while Labour looks to have lost 11, despite the Tories trying to make these elections somewhat of a referendum on the left-wing policies of Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader.  Corbyn's critics within Labour rightfully point out that the party should be increasing the number of council seats not just losing less than the Conservatives, especially with that party increasing unpopular and suffering its own internal divisions. And, in fact, many of the Tory losses came to the Liberal Democrats and the xenophobic UK Independence Party (UKIP). Additionally, in Scotland, which used to be a fortress for Labour, the party could only manage to come in third place, losing another 13 seats.  The nationalist Scottish National Party (SNP) has essentially supplanted Labour as the dominant party in Scotland and, without that Scottish base, it is difficult to see Labour being able to form a government with an outright majority any time soon.

The results for Labour were, however, better than expected, probably good enough for the controversial Corbyn to escape an immediate leadership challenge, but also not good enough to eliminate the sniping from potential challengers and solidify his leadership position.  Already, Mr. Khan has been critical of Corbyn's campaign strategy and there are others who are biding their time, waiting in the wings. Of course, the Conservatives are also in some disarray, with the party split over whether to remain in the EU.  That referendum, on so-called "Brexit", will take place on June 23.  Interesting times in British politics...