"Patronising" Sadiq Khan wins Labour contest to run for London Mayor

So Jeremy Corbyn is the new Labour leader.

A few short months ago, who would have guessed? All those Labour MPs who nominated him but couldn't bring themselves to vote for him must be feeling pretty stupid as they contemplate the depths to which their party will sink before it bounces back.

(Labour will bounce back, just as the Conservatives did, but it will take a long, long time.)

Anyway, one of the Labour MPs who nominated Corbyn but didn't vote for him and now has to work with him was the MP for Tooting, Sadiq Khan.

That's because it was announced yesterday that Khan had been selected as Labour's candidate for the 2016 London mayoral election.

Among those he defeated were the favourite Tessa Jowell and my old sparring partner Diane Abbott.

I allowed myself a little cheer when I heard Jowell had lost. This time last year she vowed to ban smoking in London's parks and squares if she became mayor.

Abbott is no friend of the smoker either. In 2011, as I wrote here, she called for a ban on smoking outside Olympic venues.

Last year I had a little contretemps with her on Andrew Neil's Daily Politics when she bizarrely pointed in my direction (I was sitting right next to her!) and referred dismissively to "people like him".

See Cigarette plain packaging: Diane Abbott and Simon Clark (BBC).

Prior to the General Election in May I posted this: Diane Abbott: friend or foe?. It speaks for itself but is Sadiq Khan any better? Probably not.

To be honest I didn't even know he was standing but when I read about his selection the name rang a bell. And I remembered.

In March 2014 he and I went head-to-head on BBC Radio London. For some reason he was calling on government to extend the smoking ban to outdoor public places.

I found him incredibly patronising – and told him so – and the presenter was sufficiently irked by Khan's tone that he eventually asked him, "What do you want to ban next?"

Meanwhile, who will run for London Mayor on behalf of the Conservatives and will he be any kinder to smokers?

Voting closes on Monday and in my next post I'll highlight an interesting policy announcement by one of the four candidates.