Sadiq Khan is no Zohran Mamdani
Mamdani is a young, rising star with no record to defend. By 2028, Sadiq Khan will have been Mayor of London for 12 years and spent a decade in Parliament before that. With his record at City Hall, Khan will need to offer more than the vague promise of ‘hope’, says James Ford
Last week popular culture taught us several important lessons: never cheat on Lily Allen, never trust Alan Carr, and never hire Kim Kardashian as an actress. The week in politics, on the other hand, proved rather more inscrutable. Sure, you can’t trust Labour to keep their promises. You shouldn’t expect David Lammy to be competent or remember to wear a poppy. And, of course Elon Musk is building a robot army. But, one might argue, these are things we probably knew (or should have suspected) already. The truly inscrutable political lesson, however, was how to interpret the election of Zohran Mamdani as Mayor of New York.
Mamdani’s win has prompted a ripple of breathless excitement on the political left on both sides of the Atlantic. For Democrats, the election of an unapologetic socialist and avowedly anti-Trump candidate in New York has provided a welcome comfort blanket for those still reeling from the comprehensive drubbing they were handed in the presidential election last year.
Perhaps less predictably, left-of-centre figures in the UK have also been quick to bask in the reflective glow of Mamdani’s win. In their rush to associate themselves with Mamdani’s victory, UK leftwingers risk leaping to all the wrong conclusions and learning all the wrong lessons. Former First Minister of Scotland Humza Yousaf described it as a turning point. More unnervingly, one commentator concluded that Mamdani’s win showed that identity politics can win elections. London’s own Sadiq Khan was quick out of the gates, saying that “just like in London, hope won”.
Khan’s record of failure
But, if there is a UK politician that serves as an analogue for Mamdani, it is not Sadiq Khan. They may share some limited commonalities – both are Muslims with a fondness for anti-Trump rhetoric that have been elected to lead major anglophone cities – but that is pretty much where the comparison ends. Mamdani is a young, rising star with no record to defend. By 2028, Sadiq Khan will have been Mayor of London for 12 years and spent a decade in Parliament before that. With his record at City Hall – crime up, affordable housebuilding down, new infrastructure stalled – Khan will need to offer more than the vague promise of ‘hope’. Whilst the New York Post claimed that Mamdani ‘reeks of Lenin’, Sadiq Khan’s cologne is a heady brew of failure, smugness and virtue signalling.
Whilst the New York Post claimed that Mamdani ‘reeks of Lenin’, Sadiq Khan’s cologne is a heady brew of failure, smugness and virtue signalling
Khan is also going to struggle to match Mamdani’s radical manifesto. If Londoners are expecting free buses, universal childcare, publicly owned grocery stores, or a $30-an-hour minimum wage they are likely to be sorely disappointed. Even if Sadiq was minded to offer such baubles, the Starmer government is unlikely to sign off on it.
If any politician looks like a UK equivalent of Mamdani, it is Green Party leader Zack Polanski rather than anyone in the Labour Party’s ranks. Polanski is currently the UK’s most enthusiastic advocate of a wealth tax (another plank of Mamdani’s political platform). And he shows a similar ability to reach young voters and a flair for social media like Mamdani’s – as evidenced by the fact that last week Polanski appeared on The Last Leg rather than Question Time.
If Londoners themselves want to learn tangible political lessons from the New York election results, they would do well to consider the expected exodus of wealthy Americans heading to London to flee Mamdani’s promised wealth tax. We may well do better watching events in the Big Apple from afar rather than rushing to emulate them.
James Ford was an adviser to former Mayor of London Boris Johnson.