Sadiq Khan is all set to become the first Muslim Mayor of London tonight after comfortably defeating Conservative Zac Goldsmith.
Khan scored more than a million votes on the first round alone and appeared likely to rack up the largest individual mandate in British electoral history once second preference votes were included.
The bitterly contested battle had seen Mr Goldsmith and David Cameron repeatedly raise Mr Khan's ties to extremists.
He is the proud son of a Pakistani-born bus driver who considers himself so liberal he backed gay marriage and even launched his campaign in a pub.
Explaining what he would offer London Khan said before the election: 'The Khan story is a London story.
'My grandparents left India to go to Pakistan. My parents left Pakistan to come to London.'
In the interview with The Economist, he continued: 'I will be in the first generation of Khans not to be an immigrant.
'London gave me and my family a chance to fulfil our potential: I went from a council estate to helping running a business to a transport minister attending cabinet.'
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is celebrating what she said was an "emphatic" victory, her first as party leader, after the SNP emerged as the largest party at Holyrood with 63 seats, ahead of the Conservatives on 31 and Labour on 24.
With all first-preference votes counted, Khan was on 46%, nine points ahead of Goldsmith. It appeared mathematically impossible that Goldsmith could catch him on second-preference votes.
