Bethnal Green and Bow's Labour MP has given her support to the former shadow justice minister Sadiq Khan’s bid to become the party’s candidate for Mayor of London.

Rushanara Ali said:

“Sadiq knows what is needed to win after leading the Labour local election campaign in London, achieving our best results in the capital in more than 40 years. 

“Sadiq is the candidate with the background, determination, ideas and ambitions to achieve for everyone in this great city. He represents what is best about modern London.

"He’s the son of immigrants who came to the capital to make a better life. He grew up on a council estate and went to university, before building a successful career as a lawyer and running his own firm. 

“Sadiq knows that the same opportunities that London provided to him are today still denied to too many people.”

The Tooting MP, who has previously served as a Transport and Communities Minister, currently has more support amongst his Parliamentary colleagues in the city than any other candidate, with over a third of London’s Labour MPs flying the flag for the Khan campaign.

Labour members and affiliated supporters living in London will vote to decide who the party’s mayoral candidate should be, with the result set to be announced on the weekend of September 12/13 – the same time the party chooses its new leader and deputy leader.

The latest polling suggests the contest to secure the Labour nomination is shaping up to be a two horse race between Sadiq Khan and Tessa Jowell.

Welcoming her endorsement, Sadiq Khan said: “I am absolutely delighted to have the support of Rushanara and of so many of my other London Labour colleagues, representing a broad range of opinion from right across the Labour Party and London.

“Together, we can tackle the big issues facing this city and change London for the better.”