By Manuela Andreoni and Sam Tabahriti
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) -London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Wednesday hailed Zohran Mamdani's victory in the New York City mayoral race as "a fantastic win" and congratulated New Yorkers for choosing "hope over fear." Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, scooped the mayoral election by vowing to hike taxes on corporations and the wealthy to pay for ambitious left-wing policies such as frozen rents, free childcare and free city buses.
The win will install Mamdani
as the first Muslim mayor of the biggest U.S. city, following in the footsteps of Khan who became the first Muslim mayor of a major Western capital when he won his first of three election victories in the British capital in 2016.
"I suspect the reason why Zohran won by such a big majority was people could relate to what he was saying," he told Reuters. "Him being a Muslim is almost beside the point." Like Mamdani, Khan said he also confronted Islamophobia from opponents when he was first elected in 2016. His background also put him on the receiving end of fierce criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump, and the two men have clashed repeatedly in recent years. Trump has called Khan a "stone cold loser" and claimed he wanted to impose Islamic Sharia law in London. Khan, who was re-elected in 2021 and 2024, said in September that Trump was racist, sexist, misogynistic and Islamophobic.
"London, like New York, is a city that is liberal, multicultural, progressive, and also incredibly successful. We are the antithesis of everything that Donald Trump is about," Khan said. "You can see why President Donald Trump hates London, hates New York, and hates the fact that Londoners, like New Yorkers, have chosen hope over Donald Trump's vision of fear."
Khan reflected on the parallels between his own experience and Mamdani's, saying that both faced “national leaders who weren't from our parties and, frankly speaking, hated us.” But, he added, “in the face of that adversity, you can really bring a city together.”
While mayors need to work with opposition leaders when it's in their city's best interest, Khan said, that doesn't mean bowing to them.
“Don’t be scared to sometimes stand up to a national leader— particularly if that national leader is a bully.”
Khan, a human rights-trained lawyer and member of Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour Party, was in Brazil ahead of the COP30 environmental meeting. Khan, who is more of a centrist than Mamdani, has made environmental policy a central focus of his mayoralty, and sought to invest in affordable housing and transport during his tenures. But his critics, including politicians in Britain and the U.S., say crime has surged on his watch.
(Reporting by Manuela Andreoni in Rio de Janeiro and Sam Tabahriti in London; Editing by Alistair Bell)
