The Campaign Is Over. Now What?

Part One of a Two-Part Series: A Conversation with London’s Re-elected Mayor, Josh Morgan

This Week: Campaign Reflections, Strong Mayor Powers and Engaging Londoners

With several candidates offering different priorities for London, the 2026 mayoral campaign got quite heated at times. Now that Londoners have made their choices, I sat down with London’s newly re-elected mayor, Josh Morgan, to reflect on the campaign and look ahead to what comes next.

There’s something noteworthy about Morgan’s victory beyond simply winning another four-year term. He’s the first London mayor to be re-elected since Anne-Marie DeCicco-Best won her third consecutive election in 2006. That’s a 20-year stretch in which no incumbent mayor managed to secure another term. Morgan’s re-election marks a significant moment in our city’s political history.

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Morgan received 45.4% of the votes cast in the mayoral race. A clear victory over his nearest challenger, but there’s another number worth considering: only 31% of eligible voters participated. Almost seven out of every ten Londoners who could have voted didn’t.

The campaign featured a dozen mayoral candidates, each offering their own perspectives on London’s challenges and opportunities. The differences, particularly between Morgan and his nearest rival, produced some decidedly spirited moments. But now that the campaign is over, the bigger question is what happens to all those ideas, concerns and priorities that didn’t necessarily find their way into the winning platform? How will the new mayor and council ensure that Londoners who supported other candidates still have a voice in shaping the city’s future?

I was particularly interested in hearing Josh’s reflections on the campaign. What did he learn? What did he hear from Londoners that might influence his priorities over the next four years? And how does he intend to engage those who voted for someone else—or didn’t vote at all?

We also talked about the evolving role of the mayor and Strong Mayor powers, which have fundamentally changed the relationship between the mayor, council and the city’s administration. These powers bring considerable authority, but also raise important questions about accountability, collaboration and the appropriate limits of mayoral influence. How does Josh view the risks and responsibilities that come with these powers? And how will he balance that authority with the need to work effectively with a newly elected council?

An election determines who gets the job. It doesn’t settle the debate about where a city should go or how we get there. Now that the votes have been counted, the real work of bringing people together begins—including those who may have very different ideas about London’s future.

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In Part One of our conversation, Josh and I explore the election, the lessons he takes from the campaign, Strong Mayor powers and his approach to engaging Londoners as he begins his second term. In Part Two, we’ll look more closely at London’s priorities over the next four years and how he intends to work with council to address them.

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