Sadiq Khan has been re-elected as Mayor of London after beating Conservative rival Shaun Bailey.

In a contest that was closer than many predicted at one stage, Mr Khan eventually won by 1,206,034 votes to Shaun Bailey’s 977,601 when second preference votes were taken into account.

Upon being declared the winner, Mr Khan said he would “strain every sinew to help build a better and brighter future for London”.

Mr Khan said: “The results of the elections around the UK show that our country, and even our city, remain deeply divided. The scars of Brexit are yet to heal, a crude culture war is pushing us further apart. There is a growing gap between our cities and towns and economic inequality is getting worse, both within London and between different parts of our country.

“As we now seek to confront the enormity of the challenge ahead and as we endeavour to rebuild from this pandemic, we simply must use this moment of national recovery to heal those damaging divisions.”

The Mayor of London went on to say that he is a “Londoner through and through” but also a “patriotic Englishman and a Brit who is proud to represent this nation’s great capital”.