From USA TodayLONDON — Londoners and the rest of Britain were voting in local and regional elections Thursday, as the capital appeared set to elect its first Muslim mayor.
Voters are electing councils across England, mayors and police commissioners in several cities, a Scottish Parliament and lawmakers in Wales and Northern Ireland in what local media are dubbing "Super Thursday."
The countrywide elections are considered a test for the Labour Party in the first nationwide polls since Jeremy Corbyn became the party’s new leader last year. The elections are expected to deal a blow to the Labour Party, which has been engulfed in a row over antisemitism.
In London, the Labour Party’s Sadiq Khan, a Muslim and the son of a bus driver from Pakistan, is the favorite to succeed the Conservative Party’s Boris Johnson as mayor. Khan has held a consistent lead over his closest rival, Conservative Party candidate Zac Goldsmith, in polls.
A survey by market research firm YouGov for the London Evening Standard published Thursday put Khan ahead of Goldsmith by 43% to 32% as a first preference for voters.
Not all went smoothly, however. A number of Londoners, including Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, were turned away from polling stations in the Barnet neighborhood of north London after officials apparently sent out the wrong voter lists, the Standard reported. Barnet's council later said the problem had been resolved.
Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted a picture of himself and wife Samantha after they voted Thursday, urging Londoners to back Goldsmith, the son of the late billionaire financier James Goldsmith. Corbyn meanwhile, tweeted pictures of himself with various Labour voters. The result of the mayoral contest will be announced Friday.
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is on a visit to London, told reporters at a news conference with Cameron later Thursday that Britain will be less attractive to Japanese investors if it leaves the European Union. A referendum will be held on June 23 on whether the U.K. should leave the 28-member bloc.
At the conference, Cameron declined to apologize for describing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as "divisive, stupid and wrong" after the business mogul proposed barring Muslims from entering the United States.
It came after George Papadopoulos, an adviser to Trump, called for Cameron to apologize or retract his comments.
'Knowing the grueling nature of the primaries and what you have to go through, anyone who makes it through that extraordinary contest to lead their party into a general election certainly deserves our respect," Cameron said.
He added, "what I said about Muslims — I won't change that view, I don't change that view. I'm very clear that the policy idea that was put forward was wrong is wrong and will remain wrong."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/05/05/britain-goes-polls-londoners-vote-new-mayor/83961544/
Topic: UK: Muslim Labour lackey may become Mayor of London (Read 492 times)