What does the election of New York's Zohran Mamdani mean for London?

0:02Hi, I'm Charlie Duffield and welcome back to The Standard Podcast. If you're new here, hit follow and give us a rating. For all the latest news, head to standard.co.uk. Coming up later in the show, what could the incoming New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani learn from former left-wing London Mayor Ken Livingston? I think 2000 to 2008 were years when London started to look better and better. When you look back at Red Ken's Livingston's record, he was unpopular with the right, with the Tories and even with members of his own party. But London felt pretty happy under him. And if Mamdani can pull that off, that would be incredible for New York.

0:48But first... We got to play some New York City centric songs. This is Jay-Z, Alicia Keys. Introduce yourself. Zoran Kwame Mamdani, running to be the next mayor of New York City. I'm excited for you to be mayor and I hope... No, actually, no, I know you're going to become mayor. It's time for a change. Time for a change. Yes, ma 'am. You guys got my seat is in shape. Hey, congratulations. Congratulations. That's amazing. You're the game changer. Thank you, my brother. So bottom line is, which is going to fall on your shoulders if and when you win, is an enormous responsibility to show the world and people throughout this country that our value system can govern well and efficiently, that we can fight for justice, that we can create a better world for all people, not just for the 1%.

1:42Tonight, 34-year-old state assemblyman Zohra Mamdani toppled a New York political dynasty, becoming the first New York City mayoral candidate since 1969 to earn more than a million votes. On January 1st, I will be sworn in as the mayor of New York City.

2:03I mean, look at the excitement in that crowd. This is the kind of energy Democrats have been desperately seeking for years. The story of this is not going to be the greatest thing we ever did to run this campaign. It can't be. It's going to be what we did after we won.

2:24In New York City, the most sought-after fashion item right now is a Hot Girls for Zoran t-shirt, a souvenir from an improbable campaign from a democratic socialist upstart promising to be a new kind of city mayor. As you just heard, on the 5th of November, Ugandan-born Zoran Mamdani secured an astounding against-the-odds victory in the New York mayoral election, becoming the youngest person in over a century to lead the largest city in the US. It was a historic victory all round. Mamdani will be the first South Asian and Muslim mayor of the Big Apple. After winning 50 % of the electorate and beating the scandal-plagued former governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, he went on to deliver a rousing victory speech.

3:13The sun may have set over our city this evening, but as Eugene Debs once said, I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity. The future is in our hands.

3:36My friends, we have toppled a political dynasty. President Trump has threatened to withhold federal funding from New York, amounting to 7 % of the city's budget, and is toying with sending in masked immigration and customs enforcement agents, as well as the National Guard. However, in his speech, Mamdami delivered the now infamous line. So Donald Trump, since I know you're watching, I have four words for you. Turn the volume up! When Mamdani first launched his run for mayor, he barely polled 1%, but has now been declared Trump's worst nightmare. He'll be in charge of a city of 8.5 million people, commanding a budget of$120 billion and responsible for nearly 300 ,000 employees.

4:33He's promised billion-dollar giveaways, such as fast and free buses, a rent freeze on all rent-stabilised apartments, universal childcare for six-week infants to five-year-olds, and subsidised city-run grocery stores. But as the dust settles on his victory, the question now is whether he can deliver on this mandate for change. Plus, how might his election win influence the capital? Joining me now is Sarah Baxter, director of the Marie Colvin Centre for International Reporting, who is based in New York herself. Sarah, we've listened to footage from Mamdani's win. What was the atmosphere like in New York on that historic day?

5:14It was a big party night. The clubs were rocking, young people were ecstatic, and the wealthy on the Upper East Side of Manhattan were wondering what on earth was going to hit them because Mamdani is very left-wing and an avowed democratic socialist. So they're worried that when he talks about affordability for lower income groups, it's going to make their life much more penalised. Of course, they can afford it, is the feeling, but the rich are apprehensive. The young are ecstatic. When I read about his policies, they almost sounded too good to be true. How is he proposing to pay for everything?

5:53He thinks he can pay for it by increasing New York state taxes on people earning over a million dollars. So in his view, the super rich and also by increasing corporate taxes from 7.25 % up to 11%. Now, that's how he said he's going to pay for it. So ostensibly, the books add up. The trouble is that the mayor of New York doesn't actually set the taxes. The governor of New York, together with the state assembly, sets the taxes. They're based 150 miles away in Albany. And Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, has already said, the more you push me on this, the more I'm going to resist. So there isn't a very favorable reception for Mamdani from the Democratic mayor of New York.

6:39She's much more moderate. She faces re-election herself next year. She has to appeal to upstate New Yorkers, not just a city of New York radicals. And so she is going to be an obstacle. But of course, under pressure, she did endorse Mamdani. And she said that he brought lightning to politics because she would love to bottle his charisma, but not his policies. Remind us how he got so many people to vote for him. Charm, charm and charm. He went from 1 % in the polls when he launched his campaign. Nobody had heard of him. Nobody could pronounce his name. And it was his happy warrior stance that really captivated New Yorkers.

7:19It wasn't just, though, that he seemed an appealing candidate, a kind of Gen Z candidate with a cool wife. He's also very young. He's only 34. But it was also a message about affordability. He ended up picking up steam very much with low income groups in the Bronx minority groups because he kept hammering away a central message that New York was becoming unaffordable. and he had policies that were going to solve this. And people listened because New York, if anything, is even worse than London when it comes to being affordable for its own residents. It's a big crisis as it is in London. So Mamdani's message really resonated.

8:02In London, Sadiq Khan is the capital's first Muslim mayor. Like Mamdani, might they form some kind of alliance? Well, ostensibly, the two mayors have a lot in common. As you say, Sadiq Khan was the first Muslim mayor of London. Zoran Mamdani is the first Muslim mayor of New York, which is an extraordinary milestone, by the way, given what happened to the city on September 11th, 2001. But that's now nearly a quarter century ago. They are allies in that respect. They're allies because they run two of the greatest cities in the world. I'm a fan of both, as you can imagine. And they're both fierce opponents of Donald Trump, but they are very different political characters.

8:45Mamdani is much more left-wing than Sadiq Khan. Sadiq Khan is much more business friendly, which could present an opportunity for London should wealthy New Yorkers start to invest their money elsewhere. I mean, if they feel that business taxes are too high and that their own personal taxes are too high. This is a very mobile class. And I think Sadiq Khan would be delighted to welcome wealthy New Yorkers to London and seek their investment in London's capital. We'll have to see, though, because I think a lot of people who shook their heads when Mamdani started to rise in the polls and said, oh, my goodness, they wailed, if he wins, we're going to have to leave London.

9:25And I'm talking the super rich here. When it comes to it, in the end, Wall Street is the financial capital of the world. The stock market is absolutely rocking at the moment, and they'll be reluctant to leave. So we'll see how much of an exodus there is. But it certainly presents opportunities for a more moderate mayor like Sadiq Khan to pick up business from London. So what have his critics said so far? I think a lot of people wish him well at the moment. They really want him to succeed. Perhaps one of his most hostile critics, the hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman, who poured millions into Mamdani's rivals campaign and was saying it's going to be terrible for the city if Mamdani wins.

10:04I dare say he hasn't changed his view massively, but he's also extended an olive branch to Mamdani. On election night, he said, congratulations, Mr. Mayor. Just let me know what I can do to help. That kind of message. And Jamie Dimon, one of America's most influential bankers, he runs JPMorgan Chase. He said he'd like to keep lines of communication with Mamdani open. So I think business is waiting and seeing. The super rich are going to wait and see. To be frank, they can probably easily afford an extra 2 % on their personal taxes. They have been doing astonishingly well in the last few years.

10:42So I think some of the fears might have been overblown. But being mayor is a big executive challenge. As one person told me, you know, you've got to keep the streets safe, the taxpayer base high, you can't afford to have people leaving, and the feeling that the city is livable, affordable and efficient. And that's a huge task. And the extraordinary thing about Mamdani, who, as I mentioned, is only 34, is he has never had any executive experience at all. He faces a huge number of challenges. And boy, it's great to be called his honor. New Yorkers spell that in tabloids, H-I-Z-Z-O-N-E-R, or should I say ZZ in English.

11:25So he's now known as His Honor or will be come January 1st, but he's got a huge task and we don't know yet whether he's a capable manager. So let's hope so. Let's go to an ad break. Coming up, Mamdani is in for a white knuckle ride. But how vengefully will Trump respond to the threat posed by the mayor elect? We'll see you back here in just a moment.

11:53Welcome back. Sarah, city mayors are meant to be partisan figures. Do you think Mamdani is too ideological in some ways? New York has had left-wing mayors before and survived. But, you know, people do point back to a period when it was known as the rotten apple because everything got out of hand. Big cities can go on a spiral of decline. There are definite things that are wrong with New York. And too much left-wing politics and posturing could definitely put it over the edge. So what you need is someone who can run stuff. And maybe Mamdani will be good at it. But he hasn't gone overboard on identity politics.

12:30He's absolutely steered away from that, partly because in his own person, he embodies that kind of youthful left-wing energy. But he refused to get drawn into identity politics debates and issues of wokeness during the campaign. He kept hammering away at a message of affordability. And in the end, that's what's resonated with voters. And that's what he's going to be expected to deliver on, not, you know, trendy policies that are about making New York woke. It's already a woke friendly place. It's the place where everybody who doesn't feel at home in middle America gravitates to already. And that's part of its success.

13:12But he has to deliver on the issues that he said matter most to him. And that's the cost of living and affordability. And if he tries to do too much with too few resources, it's entirely possible he could end up bankrupting the city. So he has to pick his battles and maybe choose a couple of really good signature issues that he can deliver on that make people feel that New York is heading back in the right direction, because it has been going downhill, no question about it. And you've made an interesting comparison to the former left-wing London mayor, Ken Livingston. Tell me a bit more about that.

13:48Red Ken managed to run the Greater London Council and was so loathed by Mrs. Thatcher that she actually abolished it. He came back when New Labour created the post of mayor of London, and Labour wouldn't let him run. He had to stand as an independent in 2000, and he won twice as an independent. And Mamdani has also faced hostility and suspicion from his own side, the Democrats. So there are a lot of comparisons. But actually, Ken Livingston managed to keep businesses humming in London. But he did introduce policies that made London more affordable. So first of all, fair's fair under the old GLC.

14:29He came up with the travel card, you know, later the Oyster card. He started to prepare for the Elizabeth line, which is now born fruit. He won the bid for the London Olympics. And though he wasn't mayor in 2012, he won that bid that made it all possible. Finally, it's the big question. Who are you betting on to emerge triumphant here, Trump or Mamdani? Well, I would have said Trump, but Trump has been on the back foot recently. It wasn't just Mamdani who won in New York. More significantly in some ways for the Republicans, much more moderate Democrats with national security backgrounds won the governorships of New Jersey and Virginia.

15:09And they won absolutely thumping victories to women. And they won by much more convincing margins than Mamdani. I think Trump is feeling a little bit chastened. He would never admit it, of course. But MAGA is running around asking itself, what's it been doing wrong? And there are splits in that coalition emerging. Right now, MAGA advisors are having rather sort of panicky talks about how to send Trump out to stump across America on the message of affordability, because they feel that he's been running around claiming to solve, you know, about 10 of, I mean, the number keeps going up, like eight, nine, 10 foreign wars going for the Nobel Peace Prize when he really ought to be looking after the interests of Americans.

15:50So that's a big debate going on in the right. If that wasn't happening, I'd say that Trump had all the cards because he can send in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE officials. It would be a very risky thing to do, but he could send in the National Guard to patrol New York streets. And he could try and crush Mamdani by withholding federal funding, and he may yet try to do that. So what's happened is Trump's own policies are rebounding on him. He's losing the Hispanic vote, very important in New York, but also in major cities all over the country. which he had been carefully cultivating.

16:27He's losing them because of these immigration raids. He's losing at the moment the issue on affordability. That could change. Trump is an extraordinary survivor, really quite a remarkable politician. But actually, Mam Damney's having a pretty fair wind at the moment because Trump is in retreat, and I wouldn't have predicted that a few weeks ago.

16:51and that's the standard for all the latest news head to standard.co.uk if you'd like to get in touch please do drop us a line at podcasts at standard.co.uk we'll be back here on Monday morning have a great weekend and we'll see you then