Mayor of London Sadiq Khan speaks after being reelected in the London mayoral election, at the City Hall in London, Britain, May 8, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Henry Nicholls.

London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan thanked the Jewish community on Saturday following his reelection for a second term, noting that his first event as mayor was a Yom HaShoah commemoration.

Sadiq Khan won reelection handily by 280,000 votes, though he did not match the large margin he won in his first election in 2016. This time, he polled 1,013,721 votes against his Conservative opponent Shaun Bailey’s 893,051.

Although Khan’s Labour party has been seen by British Jews as badly tainted by antisemitism in recent years, Khan himself is seen as friendly to the Jewish community and has spoken out against antisemitism.

In an opinion piece written for the Guardian in 2019, Khan criticized his own party over the issue, writing, “It’s devastating that so many Jewish people now feel that Labour — a party that should be their natural home — does not have their best interests at heart, and worse, seems to them to be unwilling to tackle the scourge of antisemitism within.”

During his latest campaign, Khan said he would visit Israel during a second term, and noted his strong relationship with the mayor of Tel Aviv, Ron Huldai, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement to Jewish News, Khan said, “I want to pay tribute to the many Jewish Londoners who are part of my team. And I am proud that so many in the community continued to support me as I campaigned to become mayor again this time around.”

“It meant so much to me that the first event I did as mayor in 2016 was Yom Hashoah,” he recalled. “Since then, I have not stopped engaging with and listening to the Jewish community over their concerns and their successes.”

“The contribution of Jewish Londoners is one of the reasons we are one of the greatest cities in the world,” Khan said.