Sadiq Khan tells Jeremy Corbyn: Focus on winning power for Labour

Labour’s most powerful elected politician has given Jeremy Corbyn a blunt message that he must switch his attention from cementing his grip on the party to winning power in the country.

Sadiq Khan, who became Mayor of London in May, pointedly used the word “power” 38 times in a 20-minute speech to the Labour conference. While Mr Corbyn watched from the platform, his aides grimaced in the margins as Mr Khan declared: “Labour out of power will never ever be good enough. We can only improve lives with Labour in power.” One Corbynista snarled: “Of course we want to win the general election. The suggestion that we don’t is just completely wrong.”

Although Mr Khan congratulated Mr Corbyn on his re-election as Labour leader, he did not mention him by name when he said it was “time for a Labour government” and “a Labour prime minister in Downing Street.” He said Labour must be about “not just talking the talk, but walking the walk too.” He argued that Labour had “a duty and a responsibility” to win elections, which did not mean “sacrificing or selling out our ideals, but putting them in action every day.” He rejected the idea of “a revolution overnight” and said Labour should offer “real and meaningful change that makes life easier for the people who need it most”.

The London Mayor’s relations with his party leader are frosty. Their handshake and brief hello on the conference platform was the first time the two men had spoken since June’s EU referendum. Mr Khan backed Owen Smith in the leadership election and has said Labour must now focus “outwards” – rather than inwards and the struggle for control of the party between Mr Corbyn and his critics.

Mr Khan did not show his speech to Team Corbyn in advance. He didn’t need to because he enjoys power in his own right. Corbyn critics view Mr Khan as a king over the water at City Hall and hope his regime can be a prototype for a pragmatic and effective Labour government. He might be an alternative powerbase around which to rally.

Labour also holds the Mayoralty in Bristol and its hoping to win power in Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool next May. The party hopes that running the cities will convince voters that it can be trusted to govern the country. This perhaps explains why Prime Minister Theresa May is not keen to create more elected mayors, unlike her predecessor David Cameron.

Mr Khan has urged Mr Corbyn’s opponents not to break away from the party, believing that would be a recipe for one-party Tory rule. He believes Labour can confound predictions of a long spell in the wilderness after visiting Canada this month and having talks with Justin Trudeau, its telegenic centre-left Prime Minister, who took his party from third place to power. Mr Trudeau has been compared to Tony Blair – a hate figure for the Corbynistas but not for Mr Khan - in the early years of his premiership.

The question is, who is Labour’s Trudeau? Perhaps it could be Chuka Umunna, who had a false start in last year’s leadership election but has the X-factor and is now back in the race. Or Lisa Nandy, a rising soft left star who resigned from the shadow Cabinet in June and has impressed on the conference fringe this week. Or, despite his insistence that being London Mayor is the “best job in the world,” it might be Mr Khan.