Ten years of Sadiq Khan, and London still can’t agree on the verdict, according to YouGov polling
Fifty-five per cent of Londoners according to new YouGov polling say London is a worse place to live than it was ten years ago when Khan was elected Mayor, with only 19% saying it has got better.
Khan’s own net favourability sits at -9, with 39% viewing him favourably against 48% unfavourably, a figure YouGov notes is virtually unchanged from the -8 recorded in April 2024, before his last re-election. However, on the question of whether he is doing well as mayor right now, 42% say yes and 47% say no, an improvement of six points since 2024.
Outer London, older and historically more Conservative-leaning, rates Khan badly by 51% to 37%. Inner London on the other hand takes the opposite view, rating him well by 52% to 39%. YouGov’s own trend data going back to Khan’s 2016 and 2021 campaigns shows the same inner-outer split recurring election after election, but it has hardened rather than faded with incumbency.
Length of residence cuts the same story a different way. Among Londoners who have lived in the city more than ten years, the ones who actually watched the last decade unfold, 60% say things have got worse against 17% who say better. Newer arrivals, those here less than a decade, are close to split: 30% better, 34% worse. That gap suggests some of the pessimism is about trajectory rather than current conditions.
Transport is where the picture genuinely complicates the “London has declined” narrative rather than confirming it. YouGov asked whether public transport has got better or worse over the decade, 37% say better, 30% say worse and 27% say it has stayed about the same, making it the one major area where “better” leads. Khan’s own handling of transport policy scores similarly as his strongest brief, 48% rating him well against 43% badly, up eight points since 2022. Given that transport is also the area where TfL’s own record, the Elizabeth line’s opening, fare freezes, expanding cycle infrastructure, is most visible and most directly attributable to City Hall rather than wider economic forces, the comparative positivity here reads less like an accident and more like the one place where voters can see a direct line between mayoral decision and outcome they’ve personally felt on a bus or a platform.
Housing however sits at the opposite extreme according to the YouGov polling; just 17% think Khan is handling housing well against 66% who think badly, a gap that has widened ten points since 2022. On the question of affordable housing specifically, only 5% think it has improved over the decade, against 76% who think it has got worse, more than half of them describing it as “much worse.” Khan told voters in 2016 that housebuilding would be his single biggest priority. A decade on, even 74% of Londoners who voted for him in 2024 agree affordability has moved in the wrong direction.
Crime shows a smaller version of the same pattern, an improving trend without an improving reputation. Khan’s handling of crime has risen six points since 2022 to 31% approval, alongside genuinely falling neighbourhood crime figures and an 11-year low in homicide rate cited by City Hall itself. But 57% still rate his handling of crime as bad, suggesting perception here is lagging well behind the underlying numbers, or simply that London’s collective sense of safety runs on a longer, warier timescale than a single year’s crime statistics.
The comparison Khan probably finds most uncomfortable in this dataset is not with Zac Goldsmith or Susan Hall, the rivals he actually beat, but with Andy Burnham. The former Greater Manchester mayor, who has faced accusations of being anti-London, somehow holds a +14 favourability rating among Londoners themselves, with 46% viewing him positively against 32% negatively, a friendlier verdict from Khan’s own electorate than Khan gets. It is a reminder that Khan’s negative rating is not simply Labour voters souring on Labour figures broadly. Something specific to his own decade in office is driving the number.
And that decade may be closing sooner than City Hall would like. A majority, 56%, think Khan should stand aside and let a different Labour candidate contest the 2028 election rather than pursue an unprecedented fourth term. Crucially, this is not just opposition voters settling old scores: 31% of people who voted for Khan as recently as 2024 now think he should go. Whether that translates into an actual decision not to run is a separate question entirely, one Khan has not yet answered publicly, but the pressure recorded here is coming from inside his own coalition, not just from the outer boroughs that never much liked him to begin with.
The YouGov number worth watching isn’t the 42% who rate him well, it’s the 31% of his own 2024 voters who now want him gone. EyeOnLondon will be tracking what Khan decides to do with that.
For more London arts and culture, visit EyeOnLondon at eye-on-london.com
Follow us on:
Subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest videos and updates!
We value your thoughts! Share your feedback and help us make EyeOnLondon even better!
