Labour chooses Corbyn supporter Khan as London mayoral candidate

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's opposition Labour Party has selected a left-leaning lawmaker as its candidate for next year's Mayor of London election, adding to signs of a swing leftwards within the party. Sadiq Khan, 45, who was the first Muslim to attend cabinet, is a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, the favourite to be announced on Saturday as the Labour Party's new national leader, who has pledged to renationalise swathes of the economy. Khan, Labour's justice spokesman during the last parliament, will compete against a Conservative party candidate yet to be announced in the May 2016 election to succeed Boris Johnson. Johnson recently won a seat in Britain's national parliament and is considered a possible next leader of the Conservative party after Prime Minister David Cameron who has said he will step down before the 2020. The mayor of London has the second-largest direct electoral mandate of any politician in Europe, behind only the French president, and is responsible for policing, transport and housing. The position was introduced in 2000. Khan won 59 percent of the vote, backed by six unions and former Labour mayor Ken Livingstone, way more than runner-up former minister Tessa Jowell with 41 percent. Khan, who grew up in a deprived neighbourhood in the southwest London area of Tooting, campaigned on a platform to tackle the capital's shortage of cheap housing and rising air pollution. He has said he will oppose a third runway at Heathrow airport and ban fracking in London. "My priorities for Londoners are clear: an affordable and secure home to rent or buy," he said. He added: "More jobs with higher wages for the lowest paid, making it easier to set up and run a successful business, reducing the cost of commuting and making London's environment safer, healthier and less polluted." (Reporting by Angus Berwick; editing by Stephen Addison)