LONDON: What does London Mayor Sadiq Khan have to do with a Tory MP winning a by-election in Boris Johnson’s old constituency this week? Apparently everything, according to his rivals – and his friends.

The three by-elections held in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, Selby and Ainsty and Somerton and Frome on Friday were expected to be a nightmare of losses for Rishi Sunak. But the victory of Tory MP Steve Tuckwell in Mr Johnson’s old seat in Uxbridge and Ruislip came as a welcome surprise for the ruling party.

“Sadiq Khan has lost Labour this election,” Mr Tuckwell said, gloating after winning his seat. “We know that it was his damaging and costly ULEZ policy that lost them this election.” But it was not Sadiq Khan who was up against Mr Tuckwell for the seat. It was Labour’s Danny Beales who was projected to win, but ultimately lost.

In his remarks, Mr Tuckwell was referring to the addition of Uxbridge to the ultra-low emissions zone (Ulez) – an area in London where the most polluting vehicles are penalised in an effort to clean up the capital’s filthy air.

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As Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan has championed the cause as part of a push for greener policies, cleaner air and the tackling of the climate crisis in a way that has clearly made his party uncomfortable.

Labour leader Keir Starmer didn’t pull any punches when he blamed Mr Khan for the Uxbridge defeat.“ Sir Keir said the Ulez expansion was a factor in “why we lost in Uxbridge”, adding: “We all need to reflect on that, including the mayor.”

An anonymous Labour party aide told Politico, “It throws Sadiq’s judgement into some question. He’s got to have some sort of explanation for why — even given his own election in May 2024 — he decided that this was the right time to start doing this, and then not selling it properly … It was a badly timed policy and it’s been badly executed in comms terms.”

Some felt the party was unfairly attacking Mr Khan for pushing for the right policies. Others pointed out that the seat was never a Labour seat to begin with.

Sadiq Khan agrees. Though Uxbridge had a relatively narrow Conservative majority (7,210), the opposition believed demographic changes had been working in its opposition’s favour.

He insisted the decision to widen the Ulez was “the right one”, adding: “It was a difficult decision to take. But just like nobody will accept drinking dirty water, why accept dirty air?”

“I have lived in London my entire life [and] this seat has never been Labour since I’ve been alive, including in 1997 in the Tony Blair landslide and the subsequent by-election a few months later.”

Members of the Green Party, too, say he did the right thing.

“Starmer is wrong. The London mayor is actually doing the right thing,” said deputy leader of The Green Party Zack Polanski. So If Mr Khan has no remorse over his green policies, and Labour is showing signs of being flexibility on climate, what’s next for the party?

Tom Burke, co-founder of the green thinktank E3G, told Guardian climate sceptics in Labour will seize this moment. He said: “There will be pressure inside Labour – some people will take fright from this.”

He also warned that Starmer should not listen to these concerns. He said: “They should be very careful in generalising from this to climate policy more generally. What Starmer should do is not attack his own side, but communicate far more effectively what the consequences will be of climate policy failure. That’s what’s missing from this debate.”

Published in Dawn, July 23th, 2023