London Mayor Sadiq Khan says public were right to elect Boris Johnson as PM

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LONDON Mayor Sadiq Khan has admitted that the Labour party deserved to lose the election.

Labours most senior elected politician said the public got it right when they voted in Boris Johnson.

Sadiq Khan said Labour deserved to lose the election

In an extraordinary attack on outgoing leader Jeremy Corbyn, he poured scorn on Labour claims they won the argument despite suffering the worst election defeat since 1935.

Speaking to the Sunday Times today, the London Major said: “Hand on heart, did we deserve to win the general election?

“Probably not, so the British public got it right.”

He said the decision to go to the polls while the party was so behind was “foolish”.

Labour ended up with their worst result in decades, and lost scores of seats.

Many were Labour heartlands in the North of England that the party had always held, but went blue as voters backed Boris to get Brexit done.

Mr Khan, who is standing to be re-elected as Mayor later this year, blasted: “Now we have at least five years of a Boris Johnson, hard-Brexit government.

“Those who were responsible for that decision need to put their hands up.”

He added: “What Jeremy and those around him should have the humility to recognise is [they] let Corbyn be Corbyn, and we got pasted.”

He said that the leadership were not seen to condone anti-Semitism enough – and that the party were seen as racist.

“Weve demonstrated a breathtaking lack of emotional intelligence or humanity,” he said.

Asked if people failed to back Labour last month because they felt it was racist he said: And you know what? If a dog barks, and a duck quacks . . .”

He claimed he had “probably knocked on more doors than any candidate” and concluded that the public “didn’t have confidence in the party and our values.”

Meanwhile, Labour’s on the fence Brexit position was the “worst of all worlds”, he added.

Mr Khan was one of the leading Labour figures demanding a second Brexit referendum, and had come out for Remain.

He has yet to say who he will back to be the next Labour leader.

In the interview he also admitted he has only twice refused a selfie for a fan.

“Once when I was rushing to catch a plane, the other when I was at A&E with a family member,” he said.

Sir Keir Starmer is the current frontrunner to win the Labour leadership

Meanwhile the race to replace Jeremy Corbyn has begun, and several candidates have put their names in the hat.

Sir Keir Starmer is the current frontrunner, followed by Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry, Lisa Nandy, Jess Phillips and Clive Lewis.

Shadow Business Secretary Rebecca Long Bailey and Labour’s chairman Ian Lavery are set to run too.