Sadiq Khan

Introduction

The first ethnic minority mayor, and the first Muslim to become mayor of a major Western capital, Sadiq Khan made history when he was elected Mayor of London in the 2016 mayoral election. A British labour party politician, Sadiq

Sadiq Khan

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Professional Achievements

The first ethnic minority mayor, and the first Muslim to become mayor of a major Western capital, Sadiq Khan made history when he was elected Mayor of London in the 2016 mayoral election. A British labour party politician, Sadiq Khan was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting from 2005 to 2016. On 9 May 2016, Sadiq Khan resigned as an MP by his appointment to the ancient office of Crown Steward and Bailiff of The Three Chiltern Hundreds, a customary practice in the UK.

Before entering Parliament, Sadiq Khan represented Tooting as a Councillor for the London Borough of Wandsworth from 1994 to 2006, and was granted the title of Honorary Alderman of Wandsworth upon his retirement from local politics.

Sadiq Khan was awarded the Newcomer of the Year Award at the 2005 Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year Awards for the tough-mindedness and clarity with which he has spoken about the very difficult issues of Islamic terror. In August 2006, he was a signatory of an open letter to Tony Blair criticising UK foreign policy.

Sadiq Khan held the largest personal mandate of any politician in the history of the United Kingdom, and the third largest personal mandate in Europe. As mayor he introduced reforms to limit charges on London's public transport and focused on uniting the city's varied communities. He was a vocal supporter of the unsuccessful Britain Stronger in Europe campaign to retain the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union.

Sadiq Khan held the largest personal mandate of any politician in the history of the United Kingdom, and the third largest personal mandate of any politician in Europe (behind the Presidents of France and Portugal).

Born on 8 October 1970 in Tooting, South London to a working-class British Pakistani family, Sadiq Khan gained a degree in Law from the University of North London. He completed the Law Society finals at the College of Law in Guildford. From 1994 to 1997, he was employed as a trainee solicitor and assistant solicitor and from 1997 to 2005, was a partner in the firm Christian Khan with Louise Christian. During his legal career he acted in actions against the police, employment and discrimination law, judicial reviews, inquests and crime. He subsequently worked as a solicitor specialising in human rights, and chaired Liberty for three years.

Under the Labour government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown he was appointed Minister of State for Communities in 2008, later becoming Minister of State for Transport.  A key ally of Labour leader Ed Miliband, he served in Miliband's Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, Shadow Lord Chancellor, and Shadow Minister for London.

On Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Cabinet reshuffle of 3 October 2008, Sadiq Khan was appointed Minister of State for Communities and becoming the second Muslim to serve in HM Government.

In 2009, he became the first Muslim to attend Cabinet upon his appointment as Minister of State for Transport. In what was believed to be a first for an MP, Sadiq Khan used his Twitter account to self-announce his promotion as Transport Secretary.

In March 2010, Sadiq Khan publicly stated that for a second successive year he would not be taking a pay rise as an MP or Minister, declaring 'At a time when many people in Tooting and throughout the country are having to accept pay freezes I don't think it's appropriate for MPs to accept a pay rise'. For his first 15 months' service in Government, he chose not to draw a ministerial incremental salary.

In the wake of Labour's 2010 election defeat, Acting Leader Harriet Harman appointed Sadiq Khan Shadow Secretary of State for Transport. After running Ed Miliband's successful leadership campaign, Sadiq Khan was previously rewarded with the senior roles of Shadow Lord Chancellor and Shadow Justice Secretary. He was advanced as Shadow Minister for London, in addition to his other responsibilities, in 2013.

He is regularly named among the Top 100 London politicians in the London Evening Standard's annual poll of the 1,000 most influential Londoners and is an Ambassador for Mosaic Network, an initiative set up by Prince Charles.

In 2013, Sadiq Khan appeared on a number of speaker platforms and in the press discussing the 2016 London mayoral election, and was quoted in the London Evening Standard saying he would consider running for Mayor of London to succeed Boris Johnson.

In May 2015, he declared his intention to become the Labour Party's mayoral candidate. In September 2015, Sadiq Khan won the selection, polling 37.5% of the first round vote with former minister Dame Tessa Jowell in second place on 29.7%. In the final round, following the elimination of lower-placed candidates, Sadiq Khan took 58.9% against 41.1% for Jowell.

In November 2015, Sadiq Khan made a promise to freeze all London's Tube, train and bus fares for four years if elected Mayor. He said this would cost £450m over four years, but Transport for London said the real cost would be £1.9 billion, saying that Sadiq Khan had not considered increasing ridership over the Business Plan (passenger numbers are rising by 5 per cent every year) and there will be new fares revenue from Crossrail when it opens in 2018/19.

Sadiq Khan was officially sworn in as Mayor in a multi-faith ceremony held in Southwark Cathedral the following day. His first act as mayor was his appearance at a Holocaust memorial ceremony in a rugby stadium in North London, although due to delays with the results of the election, he only officially took office on 9 May.

In the buildup to the referendum on the UK's continuing membership of the European Union (EU), Sadiq Khan was a vocal supporter of the 'Remain' camp. He agreed to attend a Britain Stronger in Europe campaign event with the Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron in order to demonstrate cross-party support for remaining within the EU, for which he was criticised by Labour Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, who claimed that sharing a platform with the Conservatives discredits us. After the murder of MP Jo Cox during the campaign, Sadiq Khan called for the country to pause and reflect on the manner in which the Leave and Remain camps had been approaching the debate, stating that it had been marred by a climate of hatred, of poison, of negativity, of cynicism. Following the success of the 'Leave' vote, Sadiq Khan insisted that all EU citizens living in London were welcome in the city and that he was grateful for the contribution that they made to it.

While fasting for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in 2016, Sadiq Khan declared that he would use the period as an opportunity to help break down the mystique and suspicion surrounding Islam in Britain and help to get out there and build bridges between communities, organising iftars to be held at synagogues, churches, and mosques. Following the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, Sadiq Khan attended a vigil in Old Compton Street, Soho, and insisted that he will do everything in my power to ensure that LGBT Londoners feel safe in every part of our city and later in that month he marched in the LGBT Pride London parade.

On transport, Khan immediately announced the introduction of a "Hopper" bus ticket which would allow a passenger to take two bus journeys within an hour for the price of one; it was intended to benefit those on low incomes most. In June, Khan announced that his electoral pledge to prevent transport fare rises would only apply to "single fares" and pay as you go fares, and not daily, monthly, weekly, or yearly railcards; he was widely criticised for this, including by the Liberal Democrat Caroline Pidgeon, who accused him of having broken his promise. In June 2016 he ordered TfL to ban any advertising on its network that was deemed to engage in body shaming and the demeaning of women.

In his first weeks as Mayor, Sadiq Khan criticised foreign investors for treating homes in London as 'gold bricks for investment', instead urging them to invest in the construction of affordable homes for Londoners through a new agency, Homes for Londoners, which would be funded by both public and private money. However, in contrast to a pre-election statement, he revealed that he no longer supported rent freezes in the city. Insisting that he would oppose building on the Green Belt, which is now even more important than when it was created, Sadiq Khan vetoed the construction of a football stadium and two blocks of flats on Green Belt land in Chislehurst, after the plan had already been supported by Bromley Council.

In January 2013 and 2015, Sadiq Khan was nominated for the Politician of the Year Award at the British Muslim Awards. He later won the award in February 2016.

Sadiq Khan's grandparents migrated from India to Pakistan following the partition of India in 1947, and his parents migrated to England from Pakistan shortly before Khan was born. His late father, Amanullah Khan, worked as a bus driver for over 25 years. He married Saadiya Ahmed, a fellow solicitor, in 1994 and has two daughters, Anisah (born 1999) and Ammarah (born 2001).

He is London's first ethnic minority mayor. Various press sources noted that Sadiq Khan's election made him the first actively affiliated Muslim to become mayor of a major Western capital. Sadiq Khan is a Sunni Muslim and regularly attends Al-Muzzammil Mosque in Tooting.

Sadiq Khan held the largest personal mandate of any politician in the history of the United Kingdom, and the third largest personal mandate in Europe. As mayor he introduced reforms to limit charges on London's public transport and focused on uniting the city's varied communities. He was a vocal supporter of the unsuccessful Britain Stronger in Europe campaign to retain the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union.

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