London: The son of a Pakistani bus driver looks set to be elected as London’s first Muslim mayor and the first such leader of a European Union capital in local elections on Thursday .
Labour party candidate Sadiq Khan is leading in most surveys by a minimum of nine points over his Conservative party rival Zac Goldsmith on the eve of the polls.
Khan’s lead has been fairly consistent throughout the mayoral campaign, despite his party being embroiled in an unseemly anti-Semitic row over the last week. The 45year-old was himself accused of racism as a video emerged of him referring to moderate Muslims as “Uncle Toms.”
“I do regret using the phrase and I am sorry,” he said in a BBC radio interview on Wednesday but went on to accuse his rival, the son of late billionaire Sir James Goldsmith and brother of Jemima Khan, of using “divisive and increasingly desperate” tactics.