Sadiq Khan takes incumbency inspiration from Albanese’s poll landslide for Labour’s fight against Farage

The Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan says Anthony Albanese’s massive election win shows how Keir Starmer can defeat Reform and prevent a MAGA takeover of the UK.

In exclusive comments to The Nightly, Mr Khan said Sir Keir could replicate Mr Albanese’s May success, in which the Labor Prime Minister improved his majority in a landslide win to secure a second term, bucking a global anti-incumbency trend.

“First of all I was really pleased that Anthony Albanese won the elections in Australia,” Mr Khan said.

“It’s good to see progressives win, whether it’s in Australia, Canada, the UK or elsewhere.”

He said it showed populists could be defeated.

“I’ll say to your friends, businesses and others who are nervous about a version of MAGA coming to the UK — people wouldn’t have expected what happened in Australia before the general election, people wouldn’t have expected Canada in terms of both those countries — progressives win.

“Actually one of the reasons is the consequence of MAGA in America and so I’m confident.

“And also, being brutally frank, we’ve seen how in Australia an incumbent progressive won re-election.

“So we can see the importance and relevance to us there as well as I want Keir Starmer to win again as the incumbent.”

Khan, who is London’s first Muslim Mayor, said it was not just the United States with whom the UK had a “special relationship” but also the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing countries of Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

“And it is very important just to say that the Australian prime minister and the British prime minister aren’t just friends privately, but their politics align as well which is really important,” Mr Khan said.

Mr Khan was quick to point to Mr Albanese’s first and narrow win in 2022 as a “victory for hope, unity and progressive politics.”

In May he praised Mr Albanese’s re-election and said London and Australia’s bond was “rooted in shared values.”

Mr Khan could have the opportunity to meet Mr Albanese as early as next month amid speculation the Prime Minister will travel to London for bilateral visit after the UN General Assembly meeting in New York in September.

Mr Albanese views Mr Starmer and the centrist French President Emmanuel Macron as his closest international mates.

He has followed their positions on joining the European-led Coalition of the Willing to secure any peace struck in Ukraine as well as recognising the State of Palestine as a way of urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end his bombardment of Gaza.

Both Mr Albanese’s international pals are both under domestic pressure. President Macron’s En Marche movement is struggling to maintain support. The country’s latest prime minister François Bayrou has called on a confidence vote to secure support for cuts to public spending which polls project he is unlikely to survive.

Meanwhile Sir Keir’s Labour government is widely perceived to have made little progress in delivering on the broad promise of ‘Change’ that was pledged.

Mr Khan said he did not underestimate the challenge Reform posed but doubted they would stand up to the scrutiny when polling day arrived.

“In terms of Reform, one of the first rules in politics that I have is never underestimate your opponents, I think the same would apply in sports as it applies in business and Reform are our opponents,” he said.

“Obviously a general election is potentially four years away and so the landscape could change a lot over the next four years.

“The issue is can Reform put forward a platform of policy, to run a government or are they simply very good opposition and giving opinion and being a commentator?

“The jury’s out — but also don’t forget the more Reform stay in the ascendancy, the more they’ll be under scrutiny.

“And so the advantage we have is, you know, about three, four years before the next General Election, that’ll give the Labour government the chance to set out what we can do in the next three or four years but also the chance to scrutinise Reform.”

While the UK has until August 2029 to hold its next general election, Labour has begun treating Nigel Farage’s upstart party as the real opposition, even though it has just four seats in the House of Commons compared to the Conservatives’ 120 seats.

Sir Keir Starmer won government in a landslide in July last year but has failed to inspire the British public and deliver on key issues that Britons rate as priorities, including the cost of living, controlling immigration, reducing NHS waiting lists and stopping small boats carrying migrants across the English Channel.

Polling shows Reform between five and nine points ahead of the governing Labour party.

Farage, who led the UK’s Brexit movement culminating in the 2016 decision to quit the European Union, is riding high in the national polls and won control of a swathe of seats in the traditionally Tory home county of Kent which borders London and extends to the English Channel, meaning it bears the brunt of incoming asylum seeker flows.

On Sunday, four boats carrying 212 asylum seekers successfully crossed the Channel, taking the number of migrants to reach the UK in the first eight months of 2025 to a record 28,076.

Far-right protestors have held rallies outside hotels holding asylum seekers across the UK. Mr Farage will launch his so-called Operation Restoring Justice plan on Tuesday, which will include the proposed mass deportations of asylum seekers and quitting international and domestic human rights laws.