By Lara O'Reilly

Cries of “yes we Khan, yes we Khan” erupted in Wandsworth Civic Suite last night as Sadiq Khan, Labour candidate for Tooting, retained his seat in the constituency.

Khan, the minister of state for transport and first Muslim ever in British history to attend cabinet, beat his rival Tory Candidate, Mark Clarke, to the seat by a majority of 2,524 – but less than half that of the majority in 2005, which stood at 5381.

According to Khan, last night saw Tooting’s highest Labour vote since 1997 and the Conservatives’ lowest since 1992.

Clarke needed a 6.1 per cent swing to unseat Labour – not dissimilar to the 6.9 per cent the Conservatives needed nationally to win the overall majority.

Mr Khan said: “Tooting is the seat the Conservatives would need to win to have a majority Government.

“The three words I am very pleased to say are: ‘Tooting Labour hold’.”

The constituency of Tooting was number 112 on the Tory target list after Labour won its 5381 majority in 2005.

In his winning speech, Khan praised the positive Labour campaign in the constituency compared to Tory “smears” which was met by jeers from Conservative supporters.

In the run-up to the campaign, it was emerged Khan had wrongly used Commons expenses to send out letters to constituents in the run-up to the election.

Mr Khan said: “This is not about party leaders or politicians, it is about Tooting. This election in Tooting was about power to the people.”

Clarke made no losers speech and was unavailable for comment after the result was announced.

Liberal Democrat Nasser Butt polled 7,509 votes.

The Tooting constituency covers Tooting, Earlsfield and part of Balham.

The Wandsworth borough is typically Conservative and traditionally one of the Tories’ strongest local authorities in London - as demonstrated by strong wins in the Battersea and Putney seats last night.

Tooting has a significant ethnic minority community and was typically working class until city house price hikes saw young middle class professionals move in to the area.

Last year, Khan made history by being the first Muslim to attend Cabinet, in his role as transport minister.

Khan is a bus driver’s son who grew up in an Earlsfield council flat.

His mother worked at local St George’s Hospital and he maintains strong links to the West Indies where his family are originally from.

Clarke, 33, is the Chairman of Conservative Future, the youth wing of the Conservative Party.

He featured in society magazine, Tatler, in the now infamous photoshoot of “future cabinet ministers”.

Turnout in the borough was less than expected at 65 per cent.