Race to unseat Sadiq Khan in London mayoral contest begins

The bicycles have been brought out and eager fists are getting ready to knock on hundreds of doors as the race for one of the most sought-after jobs in British politics springs into action.

Sadiq Khan has had a vice-like grip on London, but a range of candidates hoping to unseat him in 2028 have announced themselves. The three-time mayor has been coy about whether he will stand again, and said he would make a decision next year.

At the weekend, the former home secretary James Cleverly was seen riding a wobbly Lime bike through London, declaring that “London Bridge has got its mojo back” and that he has a “soft spot for Ealing”, where he met his wife, Susie. Cleverly, the MP for Braintree in Essex, has declared he will seek to be the Conservative mayoral candidate.

“I’m going to run as an aspirational, entrepreneurial, forward-thinking Conservative candidate that is in tune with the city,” he said, adding that he thought he could beat Khan even though London is a left-leaning city: “London is a much more pragmatic city when it comes to voting.”

Also standing in the contest to become the Tory mayoral candidate is Festus Akinbusoye, a Westminster councillor and Britain’s first ever black police commissioner. He says he is the right candidate because he is a “fresh face”, adding: “I’ve not been part of a government in the past, but I come with solid private sector experience.”

But the contest appears to be Khan’s to lose, at the moment. A recent poll by Savanta UK for the Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London, put Labour’s candidate in the mayoral race on 33%, the Tories 18%, Reform UK 18%, Green party 17% and Liberal Democrats 9%,.

The Conservatives’ bid to unseat Khan is complicated by the presence of Reform. Laila Cunningham, a former Crown Prosecution Service prosecutor, is Reform’s candidate. She has been pounding the streets of London since the beginning of this year trying to drum up support.

“I’m not stepping aside for the Tories,” she told the Guardian. “How many times have they tried to unseat Khan? They have failed.”

Cleverly, she says, is “literally the establishment and he’s gone from one ministerial job from another”. She thinks he will be picked as the Tory mayoral candidate and said: “It will be two Sirs versus a woman. Sir Khan and Sir Cleverly.”

Though the rightwing vote looks evenly divided between Tories and Reform, she is confident she can charm some of Khan’s voters: “It is not a left or right divide either, we won nine seats in Barking and Dagenham in the local elections, where the Tories wouldn’t dream of winning one.”

Cunningham, the daughter of Egyptian immigrants, said she was “not your typical Reform person. People often see me and say they are surprised I am in Reform.”

Akinbusoye is on the licensing committee of Westminster council, which is consulting to restrict “vertical drinking” in pubs – standing and drinking. Cunningham said: “That says it all. The fact they even call it vertical drinking is a joke.”

The Labour MP Dawn Butler hinted at her intention to run this week: a video of herself walking past a sign reading “a new Dawn for London”, captioned: “When London puts up signs saying ‘A New Dawn’ … what else was I supposed to do?”

She first floated her mayoral ambitions in 2023, and has since confirmed to the Guardian that she would run as soon as Khan confirmed he would not seek a third term. Khan did not respond to a request for comment.

There are no obvious contenders in sight for the Greens, with the party’s attention focused on its leader Zack Polanksi’s plan to fight the Holborn and St Pancras byelection. A Green party source said: “We do have a number of people who’d be incredible candidates but no firm name. We feel confident after our latest local election results that Londoners will be excited by our vision for London.”

Would Cunningham rather fight Butler or Khan? “[Khan’s] got incumbency. He may do better. It doesn’t make a difference because it’s what the party represents, she seems to think he was a great mayor so she seemingly wants more of the same.”