Sir Sadiq Khan has been informally advising the Democrats’ left-wing New York mayoral candidate on how to win his election.
Zohran Mamdani, 33, shocked America’s political establishment last month by defeating the former governor Andrew Cuomo in the race to secure his party’s nomination.
Sources say Mamdani and Khan have since exchanged texts and spoken over the phone. Khan’s advisers have also been in contact with Mamdani’s campaign team.
The sources close to Khan add that Mamdani needs to move to the centre to widen his appeal, particularly as Cuomo and the incumbent mayor, Eric Adams, are running as independents in the general election on November 4.
A Mamdani victory would mimic Khan’s route to the London mayoralty, which required him to outflank his Labour opponents from the left in the selection process only to then move back towards the centre to defeat the Conservative candidate, Zac Goldsmith, in 2016. Khan has since won re-election twice.
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