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Zohran Mamdani's huge win in the New York City mayoral race will "inspire the left in the UK" and could see an alternative to Keir Starmer , an expert has suggested. The young left-wing Democrat , and frequent target of Donald Trump's outbursts, was sensationally elected to run the city with more than 50% of the vote. Mamdani, who Trump has labelled a "communist", has been a major for the right-wing US President and could spark a huge change both in the US and even in the UK. Professor Anthony Glees, a security and defence expert from the University of Buckingham, has suggested Mamdani's win will be hugely influential for the UK and the Labour Party . Glees, talking to The Mirror , suggested the newly elected mayor showed that a major election can be won on a pro-immigrant ballot, something that is currently missing in the UK. The professor said Mamdani, 34, is "unashamedly pro-immigrant" and has made his views on this clear. The professor explained that Mamdani talks about the "Yemeni bodega owners, the Sinhalese taxi drivers, the Uzbek nurses, the Trinidadian line cooks", adding: "That's all fairly massive because we didn't ever think in the United Kingdom you could ever win on that kind of platform, and yet he has won." The professor explained why the new Mayor's campaign was different to most British politics at the moment, saying: "It is his attitude to the Middle East, towards Islam and towards immigrants and minorities. So this is a coalition he has won based on respect for the people that in British politics they tend to be on the receiving end of the hostility." Glees said the win was particularly a "big deal for us here in the UK" because of several British cities similar to New York with "large numbers of migrants and diversity". The professor said: "We here, in the United Kingdom, we immediately think of Sadiq Khan who may well be a forerunner for Mamdani and the position of London, but other big cities in the UK too." Although Mamdani has won a major election in the US, Glees emphasised US politics plays a huge role in UK politics. The professor said: "It's a kind of rule of politics that the prevailing political win in the UK, and in many other European countries, come from the United States. We are always strongly influenced by what’s happening in American politics." Mamdani's win for pro-immigrant and socialist politics could give the Labour Party some food for thought amid the rise of Reform and Nigel Farage's divisive policies. Glees said: "I think it will inspire the left. It will play out in the struggles going on in the Labour party right now and they will be looking at the alternatives to Starmer, who may be Zorhan Mamdanis." Mamdani, who will be the city's first Muslim mayor, was up against former Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo. Despite a Repubican, Curtis Sliwa, standing in the race, Trump had urged Republicans to back Cuomo to stop a Mamdani victory but this still was not enough to stop the young Democrat.
