He will be the first muslim Mayor of a western capital «I want to thank every single Londoner for making the impossible possible» – said Sadiq Khan in his victory speech last night. «I’m so proud that Londoners have today chosen hope over fear and unity over division». Khan, 45, raised in Tooting and son of a Pakistani bus driver, defeated the Eton boy Zac Goldsmith catching 53% of the preferences against a 47% of the Conservative Party’s candidate.
For sure Goldsmith’s campaign was not one of the best conceived. Racist and islamophobic – according to the Labour Party, that got London but was resoundingly defeated in Scotland and Wales.
The new London Mayor has huge challenges ahead and it won’t be easy to fulfil all the electoral pledges. Sadiq said he will be «a Mayor for all Londoners», but a real test to his ability will be set only by his concrete actions in the years to come.
He said he would freeze TFL fares for four years (after all, he is «the bus driver’s son who’ll make commuting more affordable»). He said he would start a plan to solve «the Tory housing crisis» – huge problem in London, affecting the vast majority of the population. He said he would stand up for London’s NHS – while there are some suspects of Conservatives will to privatise most of it. As far as we can see, equality is at the core of his political vision and his mission will be to tackle the growing inequalities rooting all across the british capital.
But that’s not all. Sadiq also said he would be «the british muslim who’ll take on extremisms» – as security was definitely one of the thorniest issue after the Paris and Brussels attacks. And business: London is one the most important financial hubs in the world – probably the most important with New York. Sadiq said that London will keep on being the most business-friendly city in the world.
Let’s see if he will manage to honour his plan: a busy agenda is to come and new unpredictable challenges are likely to knock at Sadiq’s door – as London is a city on the move, a fast-changing, growing metropolis.
Someone transformed Obama’s slogan «Yes, we can» in «Yes, we Khan». And Hope is also a buzzword spreading all across the media after his victory. Because who would have bet that a Pakistani bus driver’s son would have beat the handsome guy – son of a millionaire – from Richmond? Not many. But this is just London, after all. This is really a London story. And this is History, too.
