London's residents to elect new mayor

Residents in the British capital London will go to the polls Thursday to elect a new mayor, in a bitterly fought election that has exposed tensions and divisions within UK party politics.

Surveys show the Labour Party’s Sadiq Khan, a former government minister, poised to defeat Conservative Party candidate Zac Goldsmith, the environmentalist scion of a billionaire businessman.

Khan’s predicted victory over Goldsmith comes after a campaign marred by accusations of smears related to Khan’s Muslim faith and now, a worsening feud in the Labour Party over anti-Semitism.

Ken Livingstone, Labour’s last mayor of London, was suspended from the party last week after defending a Member of Parliament (MP) who shared an anti-Semitic meme on her Facebook page.

In lending support to Naz Shah, Livingstone claimed that Hitler had been a Zionist before he “went mad,” and then repeatedly refused to retract or apologize for his remarks.

Meanwhile, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn — like Livingstone, a product of Labour’s far Left — was accused of failing to take a strong enough stand against anti-Semitism.

ME