LONDON // Labour candidate Sadiq Khan was on course to become London's first Muslim mayor on Thursday after facing charges of links to extremists from the opposition.
The fight to run Britain's capital pitted 45-year-old Mr Khan, the son of a bus driver who grew up in public housing, against Conservative Zac Goldsmith, 41, the elite-educated son of a billionaire financier.
But rather than the two men's starkly different social backgrounds, it was accusations of smears over Mr Khan's faith and anti-Semitism in the Labour Party that dominated the campaign to replace Conservative Boris Johnson as mayor.
Mayors of London, a city of 8.6 million people usually known for its tolerance, are responsible for areas such as policing, transport, housing and the environment.
The capital was the top prize in local elections being held in England on Thursday, and there was little let-up in the allegations against Mr Khan - who had a big lead in opinion polls - as campaigning ran into its final hours.
During a heated parliamentary debate on Wednesday, British prime minister David Cameron accused Mr Khan of sharing "a platform with an extremist who called for Jews to drown in the ocean".
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in turn accused the Conservatives of "smearing" Mr Khan. He said one of the men Mr Cameron had accused the mayoral candidate of sharing a platform with had also been close to Mr Goldsmith.
Mr Khan says he has fought extremism all his life and that he regrets sharing a stage with speakers who held "abhorrent" views.
The former human rights lawyer has also distanced himself from Mr Corbyn after a row over anti-Semitism.
The Labour leader ordered an inquiry into charges of anti-Semitism after suspending Ken Livingstone, a political ally and a former London mayor, for saying Adolf Hitler had supported Zionism.
Mr Khan was quick to condemn the comments and on Tuesday, in his final stump speech of the campaign, said: "I've had lots of people contact me from the Jewish faith sending me their support."
The row has failed to dent Mr Khan's lead in opinion polls, however, a situation the Labour Party would like to be replicated in other local and regional elections being held on Thursday across the UK.
But in Mr Corbyn's first electoral test since taking over the party last September, analysts say Labour could lose dozens of seats in some of its traditional strongholds.
After Mr Corbyn expressed confidence that Labour would gain seats, his spokesman qualified his remarks on Thursday, saying he rather wanted to say: "We're not in the business of losing seats and we'll be fighting to win as many as possible tomorrow."
Polls are open until 10pm with the results of all races due on Friday.
* Reuters, with additional reporting by Associated Press
http://ift.tt/1NZwwOJ
3Novices Europe
No comments:
Post a Comment