Nov 7, 2025 06:57 PM
NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani and London's Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, have much in common, but also key differences
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wir...-127285093
EXCERPTS: London’s Sadiq Khan has a lot in common with New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani — but also many differences. Khan, who has been mayor of Britain’s capital since 2016, welcomed Mamdani’s victory, saying New Yorkers had “chosen hope over fear, unity over division.”
Khan’s experience holds positive and negative lessons for Mamdani, the 34-year-old Democrat who beat former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa in Tuesday’s election. Khan has won three consecutive elections but routinely receives abuse for his faith and race, as well as criticism. [...] Trump has been among his harshest critics for years ... Khan, a keen amateur boxer, has hit back...
Khan told ... that it's “heartbreaking” but not surprising to see Mamdani receiving the same sort of abuse he gets. "London is liberal, progressive, multicultural, but also successful — as indeed is New York," he said. “If you’re a nativist, populist politician, we are the antithesis of all you stand for. ”
[...] Both have tried to build bridges with the Jewish community after being criticized by opponents for their pro-Palestinian stances during the Israel-Hamas war.
Both say their political opponents have leaned into Islamophobia [...] Khan has said he feels a responsibility to dispel myths about Muslims, and answers questions about his faith with weary good grace. He calls himself “a proud Brit, a proud Englishman, a proud Londoner and a proud Muslim.”
Mamdani is an outsider on the left of his party, a democratic socialist whose buzzy, digital-savvy campaign energized young New Yorkers and drove the city's biggest election turnout in a mayoral election in decades.
Khan, 55, is a more of an establishment politician who sits in the broad middle of the center-left Labour Party. The son of a bus driver and a seamstress from Pakistan, Khan grew up with seven siblings in a three-bedroom public housing apartment in south London.
[...] Mamdani comes from a more privileged background as the son of an India-born Ugandan anthropologist, Mahmood Mamdani, and award-winning Indian filmmaker Mira Nair. Born in Uganda and raised from the age of 7 in New York, he worked as an adviser for tenants facing eviction before being elected to the New York State Assembly in 2020.
Khan and Mamdani govern huge cities with vastly diverse populations of more than 8 million. Voters in both places have similar worries about crime and the high cost of living – big issues that many mayors struggle to address.
Khan was won three straight elections, but he's not an overwhelmingly popular mayor. As Mamdani may also find, the mayor gets blamed for a lot of problems, from high rents to violent crime, regardless of whether they are in his control, though Mamdani made freezing rents a pillar of his campaign.
Mamdani campaigned on ambitious promises, including free child care, free buses, new affordable housing and city-run grocery stores.
“Winning an election is one thing, delivering on promises is another,” said Darren Reid, an expert on U.S. politics at Coventry University. “The mayor of New York definitely does not have unlimited power, and he is going to have a very powerful enemy in the current president.”
The mayor of London controls public transit and the police, but doesn’t have the authority of New York’s leader because power is shared with the city’s 32 boroughs, which are responsible for schools, social services and public housing in their areas.
Khan can point to relatively modest achievements, including free school meals for all primary school pupils and a freeze on transit fares. But he has failed to meet other goals, such as ambitious house-building targets.
Tony Travers, a professor at the London School of Economics who specializes in local government, said one lesson Mamdani might take from Khan is to pick “a limited number of fights that you can win.” (MORE - missing details)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wir...-127285093
EXCERPTS: London’s Sadiq Khan has a lot in common with New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani — but also many differences. Khan, who has been mayor of Britain’s capital since 2016, welcomed Mamdani’s victory, saying New Yorkers had “chosen hope over fear, unity over division.”
Khan’s experience holds positive and negative lessons for Mamdani, the 34-year-old Democrat who beat former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa in Tuesday’s election. Khan has won three consecutive elections but routinely receives abuse for his faith and race, as well as criticism. [...] Trump has been among his harshest critics for years ... Khan, a keen amateur boxer, has hit back...
Khan told ... that it's “heartbreaking” but not surprising to see Mamdani receiving the same sort of abuse he gets. "London is liberal, progressive, multicultural, but also successful — as indeed is New York," he said. “If you’re a nativist, populist politician, we are the antithesis of all you stand for. ”
[...] Both have tried to build bridges with the Jewish community after being criticized by opponents for their pro-Palestinian stances during the Israel-Hamas war.
Both say their political opponents have leaned into Islamophobia [...] Khan has said he feels a responsibility to dispel myths about Muslims, and answers questions about his faith with weary good grace. He calls himself “a proud Brit, a proud Englishman, a proud Londoner and a proud Muslim.”
Mamdani is an outsider on the left of his party, a democratic socialist whose buzzy, digital-savvy campaign energized young New Yorkers and drove the city's biggest election turnout in a mayoral election in decades.
Khan, 55, is a more of an establishment politician who sits in the broad middle of the center-left Labour Party. The son of a bus driver and a seamstress from Pakistan, Khan grew up with seven siblings in a three-bedroom public housing apartment in south London.
[...] Mamdani comes from a more privileged background as the son of an India-born Ugandan anthropologist, Mahmood Mamdani, and award-winning Indian filmmaker Mira Nair. Born in Uganda and raised from the age of 7 in New York, he worked as an adviser for tenants facing eviction before being elected to the New York State Assembly in 2020.
Khan and Mamdani govern huge cities with vastly diverse populations of more than 8 million. Voters in both places have similar worries about crime and the high cost of living – big issues that many mayors struggle to address.
Khan was won three straight elections, but he's not an overwhelmingly popular mayor. As Mamdani may also find, the mayor gets blamed for a lot of problems, from high rents to violent crime, regardless of whether they are in his control, though Mamdani made freezing rents a pillar of his campaign.
Mamdani campaigned on ambitious promises, including free child care, free buses, new affordable housing and city-run grocery stores.
“Winning an election is one thing, delivering on promises is another,” said Darren Reid, an expert on U.S. politics at Coventry University. “The mayor of New York definitely does not have unlimited power, and he is going to have a very powerful enemy in the current president.”
The mayor of London controls public transit and the police, but doesn’t have the authority of New York’s leader because power is shared with the city’s 32 boroughs, which are responsible for schools, social services and public housing in their areas.
Khan can point to relatively modest achievements, including free school meals for all primary school pupils and a freeze on transit fares. But he has failed to meet other goals, such as ambitious house-building targets.
Tony Travers, a professor at the London School of Economics who specializes in local government, said one lesson Mamdani might take from Khan is to pick “a limited number of fights that you can win.” (MORE - missing details)