Olney enters crowded field for 2028 mayor election

Richmond MP Sarah Olney has announced that she wants to be the next mayor of London.

She is not the only one.

The election may be more than 19 months away, but several candidates have recently declared their desire to replace Sir Sadiq Khan as the leader of London.

It is a high profile job, and the mayor has the largest personal electoral mandate of any individual politician in the UK - the Greater London Authority mayoral constituency has around 6.2 million voters.

On a sunny Thursday morning earlier this week, it was Olney's turn to make her pitch for the biggest job in municipal politics.

The former accountant turned Liberal Democrat business spokesperson has been a London MP on and off for almost a decade.

She won her seat in a shock by-election win against Tory former London mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith in 2016, then lost it to him a few months later, only to win it back in 2019.

The Lib Dems have never won the mayoralty, but they do control three councils in south-west London and are in coalition with the Greens in Southwark.

However, the party struggled to win over Londoners in the most recent mayoral and assembly elections, coming just about third in the mayoralty, but fourth behind the Greens in the London Assembly elections in 2024.

So how could Olney turn that around if she is nominated?

She told BBC London: "There are people who are prepared to vote Lib Dem, who want to vote Lib Dem and I think the real opportunity that this mayoral campaign gives us is to take that message to those people.

"To shout a little bit louder, to make our message a little bit clearer, a little bit sharper, a little bit bolder, and to really use this opportunity to encourage people to think about voting Liberal Democrat again."

Olney said she would introduce a deputy mayor elected by London businesses to help boost growth and build better homes for Londoners.

She also criticised mayors past and present for closing police front counters in constituencies like hers.

"Boris Johnson, when he was mayor, he closed a lot of the police stations across London.

"Sadiq Khan promised to keep police station front counters open in every borough.

"He's broken that promise."

Olney said reopening counters "would be a really positive step" and was something "we should very much look at trying to deliver".

In order to do so, she would have to be selected by Lib Dems in London as their candidate.

The man responsible for Olney's enforced Commons hiatus - Zac Goldsmith - was one of the three Conservatives who have tried and failed to take City Hall from Labour since Johnson departed in 2016.

Despite three defeats in a row, the Tories already have two candidates in the running for their nomination.

Sir James Cleverly was the first to declare his interest, leaving the shadow cabinet in August to run.

He spent three months as foreign secretary under Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, and then became home secretary from November 2023 until the Tory defeat in the July 2024 general election.

While he represents an Essex constituency, he has significant London experience - he was a London Assembly member for eight years from 2008 to 2016, and was appointed as the chairman of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority.

Sir James said he wants to make London "a city to be proud of again" and pledged to "rebuild its reputation and make it, once again, the best place in the world to live, work, invest and build a business".

The other Tory candidate to have declared is Festus Akinbusoye.

He was elected to Westminster City Council in May and previously served as police and crime commissioner for Bedfordshire.

Akinbusoye is expected to make policing and public safety central to his campaign, warning that the Metropolitan Police is facing a "crisis" as officers leave the force, according to the Evening Standard.

The only confirmed party candidate for mayor is Laila Cunningham from Reform UK. She was announced in January.

A former Tory councillor in Westminster, she said at the press conference announcing her selection: "There will be a new sheriff in town, and I'll be launching an all-out war on crime."

Then there are the Greens.

The party's candidate at the last election was Zoë Garbett - she is now the elected mayor of Hackney.

The Greens also have Zack Polanski, the party's leader and a London Assembly member, who may decide to throw his hat in the ring, though he is currently focused on the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, where he is his party's candidate.

And what about Labour?

Will Sir Sadiq choose to run for a fourth term, a question that he has deflected every time it is raised?

There are no term limit in British politics - people can continue to serve as long as they continue to win elections.

BBC London asked him (again) on Tuesday, and he gave this response: "Over the next two years, you'll have all sorts of people from Count Binface to these others standing to get the best job there is in the world, to be the mayor of London.

"I'll do what I've always done, which is the year before the election, set up my intentions to run or not.

"The last three times I've done that, I've won."

Sir Sadiq was recently ennobled, becoming Lord Khan of Tooting. There may be another act in his political journey, should Labour remain in power.

If he does decide that four terms are too many, then there is no shortage of Labour figures who would be keen to run.

One thing we do know for certain - the next election for mayor of London will be held on 4 May 2028.

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