Labour’s Sadiq Khan has secured a historic third term as London mayor, seeing off Tory challenger Susan Hall.
It followed “wild rumours” the incumbent could have suffered a shock defeat, although both sides subsequently said they believed Mr Khan would win.
Earlier in the day, Sir Keir Starmer said he was confident of victory for Mr Khan, who was first elected to the role in 2016.
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The Labour leader said: “Sadiq Khan was absolutely the right candidate.
“He has got two terms of delivery behind him and I am confident that he has got another term of delivery in front of him.”
The result comes after Rishi Sunak’s Tory party took a hammering at the local elections, shedding hundreds of seats and losing more than 10 councils.
Meanwhile, Labour has made gains across the country, winning the Blackpool South by-election with a 26% swing, taking control of councils in key battleground areas and victorious in the three inaugural mayoral races in the East Midlands, the North East and York and North Yorkshire, a region which includes Mr Sunak’s Richmond constituency.
Mr Starmer said: “This is effectively the last stop on the journey to the general election and I am really pleased to be able to show we are making progress, we have earned the trust and confidence of voters and we are making progress towards that general election.”
Both Mr Khan and Ms Hall had repeatedly clashed during the campaign, fought out amid concerns about knife crime and the handling of pro-Palestinian marches in the capital.
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Just recently, Mr Khan had described his Conservative rival as the “most dangerous candidate I have fought against” over her past social media activity.
Hitting back, Ms Hall said she had “learnt” from her mistakes and branded his comment “outrageous”.
A clear dividing line between the candidates had been Mr Khan’s controversial expansion of the ultra low emission zone (ULEZ), which has been the subject of ongoing protests and which Ms Hall had pledged to scrap.
During the race, the Conservatives were forced to delete a clip used in an advert against Mr Khan’s record on crime after it emerged it used footage of a stampede at a New York subway station.
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