Election results: Labor braces for close final in London mayoral race – as support for Sadiq Khan is tight | Political news

The Labor Party is bracing for a close fight in the race to become mayor of London, with early results indicating that support for Sadiq Khan has been weaker than expected.

Tory challenger Shaun Bailey had effectively been struck off by some, even within his own party, ahead of the May 6 election, but in results reported so far he has come out on top in areas previously won. by the current mayor.

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In 2016, Mr Khan got more votes than his then rival Zac Goldsmith in the constituencies of Ealing and Hillingdon, and Brent and Harrow, but both regions this time saw Shaun Bailey receive the higher number of first preference votes.

As recently as March, opinion polls suggested Mr Khan was on track to securing more than 50% of the vote, which would have seen him claim victory in the first round of the recount – which no candidate for mayor of London has ever achieved.

While it remains likely that Mr Khan will win re-election, the results so far suggest that a new round of counting will be required for the redistribution of the second preference votes.

Seven of London’s 14 municipal constituencies have reported results so far, with the remainder due to be counted by Saturday night.

So far, Mr Khan has won 487,104 first preference votes against 462,837 for Shaun Bailey, giving the current mayor a lead of 24,267.

A source from Mr Khan’s team did not deny there was a feeling of nervousness, suggesting the turnout may have worked against their candidate.

“We always said it would be a close election,” the source said.

“There is no doubt that we are seeing a significant impact of …