The capital is facing another four years of ‘Khanage’ after Sadiq Khan romped to victory in the London mayoral elections over the weekend.
The 53-year-old Labour politician promised Londoners he will make the city a ‘safer, fairer, greener’ place to live, and creating 150,000 new jobs over the next four years.
But at a closer glance his election manifesto vows to hire 500 PCSOs who have no arrest powers to fight spiralling crime in lawless London – with one of Britain’s leading knife crime campaigners accusing the mayor of ‘smoke and mirrors’ politics.
He also vowed to install thousands of extra charging points for electric vehicles, despite only a tiny fraction of people living in the city owning e-cars.
Mr Khan, who won a historic third term on Saturday, also touted a number of vanity projects to seemingly whet the appetites of voters at the 11th hour.
Among them included bombastic claims of bringing the American Superbowl and more WrestleMania events to the city.
Just days before residents went to the polls, Mr Khan posted to his 1.1million followers on X – formerly Twitter: ‘London is already the sporting capital of the world. If I’m re-elected next Thursday – we’ll go even further.
‘We’ll look to bring WrestleMania, Superbowl and the NBA to London, and put together another bid for the 2040 Olympics.’
London has hosted NFL American football games every year since 2007 – but the Super Bowl has never been staged outside the United States, raising question marks over whether or not it could ever happen.
NFL chief Roger Goodell said in February that he hoped to make the famed American sporting league ‘global’ in the next decade.
However, it’s uncertain just how London would ever play a part in the crown jewel of the American sporting calendar.
In another bid to woo voters, Mr Khan pledged he would seek to hire 1,300 more neighbourhood police officers, special constables and PCSOs.
Made as one of his top 10 manifesto priorities, his promise comes after months of fierce criticism over his record of tackling knife crime in the capital.
Official figures published a week from polling day revealed knife crime offences in the capital had surged 20 per cent in the last year – while over the course of his eight years in charge, the increase was greater still.
Read More: What do the next four years really look like under Sadiq Khan?