Sadiq Khan, Labour candidate for the Mayor of London, has been wooing Christian voters with a series of church visits.
Over the last few Sundays Khan has gone out of his way to visit London's most prominent churches. If elected on May 5, he would London's first Muslim mayor.
The MP for Tooting spent yesterday afternoon at the Dominion Theatre in central London for Hillsong's service.
Last Sunday Khan spoke at King's Cross Church and thanked Christians for their work in supporting London's most vulnerable people. In an interview with Christians on the Left director Andy Flannagan and vicar Pete Hughes, Khan urged the church to vote in next month's election. "Hopefully it will be for me," he added to laughter from the congregation, which is predominantly made up of 20s to 30s. Hughes said the church would invite Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith as well.
In mid-March the mayoral candidate visited Oasis Church and met founder and pastor Steve Chalke. Khan described it as an "inspiration to see the kind of positive impact church community outreach projects can have on our city". The church said it had invited Zac Goldsmith to speak but had had no reply at the time.
Khan has a seven point lead in the polls with around a quarter of Londoners yet to decide which way to vote.
He has faced accusations of links to extremist individuals and groups which he blasted as "desperate politics" in an interview with Christian Today.
The church visits are not the first time he has explicitly praised Christian social action. He told Christian Today: "I see in my own community [in Tooting] the contribution the churches make towards food banks and towards youth work.
"They check up on old people and make sure the community comes together on big days, but they don't stop people coming to food banks because they are not Christian. They don't stop people using the youth facilities because they are not Christians. That is the best way to show people your faith."
