Sadiq Khan rules out challenging Jeremy Corbyn for Labour leadership

The Mayor of London said he was doing his 'dream job'

Sadiq Khan has ruled himself out as a potential challenger for the Labour leadership in the forseeable future.

The newly elected Mayor of London said his new post was his “dream job” and that he did not want to give it up to lead the opposition party.

Although Mr Khan did not say he would never stand to lead his party, he appeared to indicate he would stay on until at least the end of his term.

“There are many listeners who love their job, Jeremy [Corbyn] loves his job, I’ve got the best job in the world,” Mr Khan told a phone-in on LBC Radio.

“Forget the best job in politics, the best job in the world. For me it is the dream job.

“I literally am living the dream. The idea of giving up this job to be the leader of the Labour Party does not appeal to me one bit at all.”

Mr Khan himself nominated Mr Corbyn for the Labour leadership, but has recently warned that the party needs to do more to win in 2020.

The next Mayor of London election will be in May 2020, the same time as the next UK-wide general election is scheduled.

There have been rumblings of the possibility of a coup against Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the party over the past few months by MPs unhappy with his political approach.

No single candidate appears to have gained traction as an alternative against him, however.

The plotters were dealt a blow yesterday after a YouGov poll of the party’s members showed that support for Mr Corbyn was still overwhelmingly high amongst members.

Far from internal criticism and spats having damaged the leader, most members overwhelmingly blamed hostile MPs for party divisions.

Additionally, a higher proportion of member said they would vote for Mr Corbyn again were another leadership contest held today.

Mr Khan served as MP for Tooting before becoming Mayor of London. He was elected earlier this month with a record number of votes, defeating Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith.

The Mayor has attracted unusually high levels interest in the international media for being the first observant Muslim mayor of a major Western capital city.