How Sadiq Khan's common touch proved to be the secret of his success

David Cohen got to know London’s new mayor after he persuaded him to run the London Marathon, He found a man who devoted all his energy to his commitments
Man of the people: Sadiq Khan is greeted by City Hall after his win
Hannah McKay/EPA

Two contrasting images stand out as to why Sadiq Khan achieved such a definitive victory.

In one, a diffident Zac Goldsmith addresses Tory activists flanked (and overshadowed) by David Cameron and Boris Johnson.

In the other, Sadiq Khan strides through the streets of the capital, besieged by Londoners of all stripe who want to shake his hand or ask for a selfie.

In the final few days of his campaign, I watched Sadiq look each one in the eye, grasp them by the hand and cannily find a point of contact.

If they lived on a council estate, so had he. If they worked in public transport, did they know his dad drove the number 44 bus? If they had teenage daughters, oh boy, don’t get him started! I saw a middle-aged man in his Sunday best sprint 50 yards just to shake his hand and tell him, “I am backing you because you are one of us”.

Sadiq Khan's first official day as London Mayor

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It was as if Sadiq had something in common with half of London. As for the rest, he would listen attentively and sometimes even adopt their issues as his own. Whereas Zac looked like a “little boy lost” riding the coat-tails of Dave and Bojo, Sadiq came across as his own man, with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn nowhere to be seen.

I am convinced that, more than any single policy position on housing or transport or clean air, the biggest factor that propelled Mr Khan to victory was the connection he forged with Londoners and the energising, obvious pleasure he got from meeting them.

As one Londoner put it: “The difference between Sadiq and Zac is that one wanted to be the mayor of all 33 boroughs, the other gave the impression they would make an excellent mayor of Richmond.”

As the campaign wore on, Zac became desperate, accusing Sadiq, a liberal Muslim, of being “untrustworthy” and “giving oxygen to extremists”. Zac never looked comfortable with his own deplorable tactics, though ultimately he must take responsibility for going along with something that always rang false.

Another popular trope put out by some commentators is that Sadiq is dull and plodding. In my experience, he is anything but. He might not have the pulling power charisma of Boris, but Sadiq in person is witty, charming and smart and comes across as a man of grit and integrity.

I first met Sadiq in 2009 when I interviewed him as Gordon Brown’s new transport minister, but I only got to know him in 2013 when I asked him to run the 2014 London Marathon for the Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund.

He was considering running for mayor and thought running the marathon would help hard-up Londoners and raise his profile, but he was nervous of having so little time to train.

We ran a half-marathon together a few weeks later and I saw then that everything Sadiq does, he does with full commitment. He went on to beat me in the marathon by about 10 minutes — which delighted him no end — and he raised over £20,000 for our fund.

One thing Sadiq has is the capacity to surprise. Nobody expected him to beat Tessa Jowell to be Labour’s candidate for mayor, let alone to win the whole thing. But now that this embodiment of modern-day multicultural London has grabbed the hot seat, this particular Londoner couldn’t be happier.

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