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Sadiq Khan has told Byline Times that he is “angry” about the Government’s handling of the Peter Mandelson scandal, and believes it will contribute towards the Labour party losing control of councils right across London in next month’s local elections.
“I’m sad, angry and worried about the May 7th elections,” he said.
“I’ve seen examples of great Labour councils doing great stuff – our ability to deliver free school meals, to build record numbers of council homes and reopen youth clubs with great Labour councils and some of those councils may not be Labour after May 7th, through no fault of their own”.
Khan said that “mistakes” by Keir Starmer’s Government were overshadowing the good work of Labour-run councils in the capital and beyond.
“They have made mistakes, and so those mistakes mean, rather than over the last two weeks, they’ve been able to talk about the great delivery of Labour councils, they’ve instead been talking about Mandelson and that’s not good when you’re knocking on doorsteps.”
The London mayor said that Starmer needed to do more to “win over” progressive voters, rather than to attack those switching to the Greens.
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Source close to the London Mayor accuses Mamdani’s political opponents of “weaponising” his Muslim faith in an “uncanny” repeat of Conservative attacks against Khan
The Prime Minister was accused of taking a dismissive attitude towards Zack Polanski’s party in the wake of Labour’s defeat to the Greens in the Gorton and Denton by-election, when he urged voters not to embrace the “extremism” he believed they represented.
Khan told Byline Times that he believed this kind of language was counter-productive
“Don’t call green voters extremists. They’re not” Khan told this paper.
“They’re people who are progressives. They may not agree with us on all these issues, but we should try and court them and win them over.”
Khan also said that the Prime Minister had to be careful in his choice of rhetoric, given the possibility that Labour may need the support of the Green party after the next general election.
Citing his own work co-operating inside City Hall with Green party members of the London Assembly, he said: “I think you’ve got to very careful with language. After the next general election, I hope it doesn’t happen, but there could be a hung parliament. You think somebody who is in a minority party is going to want to form a government with you if have been you’ve been offensive towards them?”
One area where the London Mayor believes the Government could go further to reach out to progressive voters is on Brexit.
“The Labour Government and I don’t agree on the European Union. I think we should rejoin. I think it should be in the manifesto the next general election”
However, he backed Starmer to remain as Prime Minister, insisting that “Keir can fight the next general election as a successful and popular leader.”
Khan was talking to Byline Times ahead of his ten year anniversary as London Mayor.
The full interview will be published here and on our YouTube channel, next month.
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