NYC’s Mamdani and London’s Khan have tons in frequent, additionally many variations

[ad_1] He’s the left-leaning Muslim mayor of the nation’s largest metropolis, and US President Donald Trump is one among his largest critics.

London’s Sadiq Khan has quite a bit in frequent with New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani – but in addition many variations.

Khan, who has been mayor of Britain’s capital since 2016, welcomed Mamdani’s victory, saying New Yorkers had “chosen hope over worry, unity over division".

Khan’s expertise holds constructive and detrimental classes 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 gained three consecutive elections however routinely receives abuse for his religion and race, in addition to criticism from conservative and far-right commentators who depict London as a crime-plagued dystopia.

Trump has been amongst his harshest critics for years, calling Khan a “stone chilly loser", a “nasty individual” and a “horrible mayor", and claiming the mayor desires to convey Sharia, or Islamic legislation, to London.

Khan, a eager beginner boxer, has hit again, saying in September that Trump is “racist, he's sexist, he's misogynistic and he's Islamophobic".

Khan advised The Related Press throughout a worldwide mayors’ summit in Brazil on Wednesday that it is “heartbreaking” however not stunning to see Mamdani receiving the identical kind of abuse he will get.

"London is liberal, progressive, multicultural, but in addition profitable – as certainly is New York," he stated. “If you happen to’re a nativist, populist politician, we're the antithesis of all you stand for. ”

Mamdani takes on Trump as voters hope for political various

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<img fetchpriority="low" src="https://s.france24.com/media/display/45e5d76c-ba07-11f0-a6d5-005056a90284/w:1280/p:16x9/AP25309168330334.jpg" srcset="https://s.france24.com/media/display/45e5d76c-ba07-11f0-a6d5-005056a90284/w:388/p:16x9/AP25309168330334.jpg 388w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/45e5d76c-ba07-11f0-a6d5-005056a90284/w:720/p:16x9/AP25309168330334.jpg 720w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/45e5d76c-ba07-11f0-a6d5-005056a90284/w:1024/p:16x9/AP25309168330334.jpg 1024w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/45e5d76c-ba07-11f0-a6d5-005056a90284/w:1280/p:16x9/AP25309168330334.jpg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 639px) calc(100vw - 32px), (max-width: 1076px) calc(100vw - 44px), 850px" width="1280" height="720" alt="Zohran Mamdan prononce son discours de victoire à New York le 4 novembre 2025." loading="lazy" class="a-img "/> Zohran Mamdan prononce son discours de victoire à New York le 4 novembre 2025. © Yuki Iwamura, AP Mamdani and Khan repeatedly obtain abuse and threats due to their Muslim religion, and London's mayor has considerably tighter safety safety than his predecessors.

Each have tried to construct bridges with the Jewish neighborhood after being criticised by opponents for his or her pro-Palestinian stances in the course of the Israel-Hamas warfare.

Each say their political opponents have leaned into Islamophobia. In 2016, Khan’s Conservative opponent, Zac Goldsmith, was accused of anti-Muslim prejudice for suggesting that Khan had hyperlinks to Islamic extremists.

Cuomo laughed together with a radio host who steered Mamdani would “be cheering” one other 9/11 assault. Mamdani's Republican critics continuously, falsely name him a “jihadist” and a Hamas supporter.

Mamdani vowed in the course of the marketing campaign that he would “not change who I'm, how I eat, or the religion that I’m proud to name my very own".

Khan has stated he feels a accountability to dispel myths about Muslims, and solutions questions on his religion 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 social gathering, a democratic socialist whose buzzy, digital-savvy marketing campaign energised younger New Yorkers and drove town's largest election turnout in a mayoral election in many years.

Khan, 55, is a extra of an institution politician who sits within the broad center of the centre-left Labour Social gathering.

The son of a bus driver and a seamstress from Pakistan, Khan grew up with seven siblings in a three-bedroom public housing condo in south London.

He studied legislation, grew to become a human rights lawyer and spent a decade as a Labour Social gathering lawmaker within the Home of Commons, representing the world the place he grew up, earlier than being elected in 2016 as the primary Muslim chief of a significant Western capital metropolis.

Mamdani comes from a extra privileged background because 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 seven in New York, he labored as an adviser for tenants dealing with eviction earlier than being elected to the New York State Meeting in 2020.

Khan and Mamdani govern big cities with vastly numerous populations of greater than 8 million. Voters in each locations have related worries about crime and the excessive value of residing – large points that many mayors wrestle to deal with.

Khan was gained three straight elections, however he isn't an overwhelmingly in style mayor. As Mamdani may additionally discover, the mayor will get blamed for lots of issues, from excessive rents to violent crime, no matter whether or not they're in his management, although Mamdani made freezing rents a pillar of his marketing campaign.

Mamdani campaigned on formidable guarantees, together with free baby care, free buses, new inexpensive housing and city-run grocery shops.

“Successful an election is one factor, delivering on guarantees is one other,” stated Darren Reid, an knowledgeable on US politics at Coventry College. “The mayor of New York positively doesn't have limitless energy, and he's going to have a really highly effective enemy within the present president.”

The mayor of London controls public transit and the police, however doesn’t have the authority of New York’s chief as a result of energy is shared with town’s 32 boroughs, that are chargeable for faculties, social providers and public housing of their areas.

Khan can level to comparatively modest achievements, together with free college meals for all main college pupils and a freeze on transit fares. However he has failed to fulfill different objectives, resembling formidable house-building targets.

Tony Travers, a professor on the London Faculty of Economics who makes a speciality of native authorities, stated one lesson Mamdani would possibly take from Khan is to select “a restricted variety of fights you can win".

Khan, who's asthmatic, has made it one among his major missions to wash up London’s air – as soon as so filthy town was nicknamed the Massive Smoke. He expanded London’s Extremely Low Emission Zone, which fees the drivers of older, extra polluting automobiles a each day price to drive within the metropolis.

The measure grew to become a lightning rod for criticism of Khan, spurring noisy protests and vandalism of enforcement cameras. Khan staunchly defended the zone, which analysis suggests has made London’s air cleaner. His large victory in final yr’s mayoral election appeared to vindicate Khan's stance on the difficulty.

Travers stated that past their shared faith and being the targets of racism, each mayors face the conundrum of main dynamic, numerous metropolises which can be “surprisingly peaceable and nearly embarrassingly profitable” – and resented by the remainder of their nations for his or her wealth and the eye they obtain.

He stated London is “locked on this unusual various universe the place it's concurrently described by a lot of commentators as kind of a hellhole … and but alternatively it’s so embarrassingly wealthy that British governments spend their lives attempting to stage up the remainder of the nation to it. You may’t win.”