Labour MP Dawn Butler has revealed she plans to run to be mayor London when Sadiq Khan steps down.
The Brent Central MP is a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn and served as shadow women and equalities minister under his leadership of the party.
In an interview with The Guardian, Butler said she hoped to one day lead the capital.
“Sadiq is obviously a good friend, so it’s whenever Sadiq stops and I will put myself forward,” she said.
“But saying something out loud, putting it into the ether and hoping it will manifest, is a lesson that I’ve learned in politics.”
Butler stood in the 2020 Labour deputy leader contest - won by Angela Rayner - but was eliminated in the first round of voting.
“When I stood for deputy [leader of the Labour party in 2020], it was very much a last-minute thing,” she said.
“Other people had been working on it for years.
“I came in very late in the game, and knowing it’s something that I would love to do and actually saying it: it feels good.”
Khan is running for a third term as mayor, with the election due in May next year.
Butler was the third black woman to be elected to parliament and the first to speak from the Despatch Box as a minister.
In 2021 she was famously ejected from the Commons chamber for calling Boris Johnson a liar.