Sadiq Khan, now Sir. Why?

by Lynda Goetz

Photo by Chabad Lubavitch

So, Sadiq Khan is now a knight of the realm. Could anyone please tell me quite what Sir Sadiq has done to earn this knighthood? He is the first mayor of London* to have been so honoured, yet, under his watch, our capital city seems not so much to have flourished as to have become a rather diminished version of its former self.  Crime has risen, homelessness has increased, and in common with so many other British cities mainstream business, retail in particular , seems to have given way to dubious candy shops, vape shops, fast food deliveries and Turkish barbers. It is hard to point to any ideas or innovations introduced under his jurisdiction which have been really popular with the general public and yet he has been Mayor since 2016, having won his third term last year. How has this happened? What exactly are his real achievements? Who are his supporters?

To answer these questions we need to delve a little deeper into Mr Khan’s history and connections. As he is always keen to point out, like our Prime Minister, he came from humble origins. His parents were working-class Pakistani immigrants who arrived with their existing children in the UK in 1968.  His father was a bus driver and his mother a seamstress. His grandparents were part of the Sunni Muslim-Muhajir  who moved into Pakistan after the partition of India in 1947. Sadiq was born in St. George’s Tooting in 1970 and was the fifth of eight children. He worked hard and went on from school to study law at the University of North London (now the Metropolitan University). He went on from there to do his Law Society finals at the College of Law and completed his training at a small law firm which undertook mainly legal aid cases. Khan specialised in human rights law and became a partner in the firm before resigning in 2004 to become the prospective Labour party candidate for Tooting. He had already been involved in local politics as a councillor, representing Tooting on Wandsworth council since 1994.

Sadiq Khan entered parliament as a Labour MP in 2005. He did not always see eye to eye with the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, criticising him publicly for the terrorism he considered had been unleased by the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He also opposed the proposed introduction of 90-days’ detention without charge for those suspected of terrorist offences. However, Gordon Brown thought highly of him, and he was rewarded with increasingly senior posts in his government, culminating in the position of Minister of Transport. Khan was returned as an MP in the 2015 general election but resigned in 2016 to become the first Muslim Mayor of London or indeed any major Western capital city.

Boris Johnson’s legacy as mayor  was somewhat mixed: criticised for his lack of response to the 2011 riots, his support for Brexit and for allowing too many skyscrapers to be built; praised for his support for the arts, the Olympics and Boris bikes – although Lynne Featherstone, Lib Dem London Assembly transport spokesperson, and Ken Livingstone, the first London Mayor, both have claims to initial input on the latter. Ken Livingstone’s legacy was the congestion charge for central London and actually winning the 2012 games for the capital (although otherwise equally controversial). What has Sir Sadiq actually achieved that merits the award of a knighthood, where his predecessors have received no such accolade?

Since Mr Khan has been in charge, knife crime in London has increased and it is has become an increasingly worrying aspect of life in the capital. Council tax has also increased exponentially. His unpopular Ulez (Ultra-low emission zones) policies, first introduced in 2019, covering the area of the congestion charge, and since expanded to cover all 32 London boroughs, are another contentious aspect of life under his administration. He has also been accused of “rank hypocrisy” over the use of zero hours contracts among employees at City Hall, despite Labour plans to abolish them. There have been accusations of cronyism in awarding contracts by Transport for London (TfL), of which Mr Khan is chairman, although City Hall have defended and denied these accusations and claim  they were all properly recorded in the register of interests – even if they had been awarded directly rather than being put out to tender as required. London’s other obvious problem is homelessness, which has also been on the increase under Sir Sadiq’s watch. Critics also flagged up the fact that Sir Sadiq blocked attempts to investigate grooming gangs in the Greater London area. Given the number of Pakistanis in the capital this could appear to be something of a cover up, although the Labour Government has been equally reluctant to have a proper national enquiry into the grooming gangs.

Taking knife crime as a starting point: has Sadiq Khan done enough to tackle this? The statistics would suggest not. According to Statista in April this year, “The number of knife or sharp instrument offences recorded by the police in London rose to approximately 15,016 in 2023/24, compared with 12,786 in the previous year. This was the highest number of knife crime offences reported in London since 2019/20, when there were 15,928 offences. Between 2015/16 and 2019/20, knife crime in London increased yearly, with a particularly large increase occurring between 2016/16 and 2017/18”.  To be fair, this coincides with a countrywide increase in knife crimes, particularly in the West Midlands. Since 1991, according to House of Commons tables,  the number sentenced for knife crimes has increased from 1,729 to 8,563 in 2023. Nevertheless, as Mayor, Sadiq Khan is responsible for setting the strategic direction of policing in London and also has a role in the hiring and firing of Metropolitan police commissioners. He recently clashed with chancellor Rachel Reeves, saying that there would be cuts in policing as a result of her spending review. The right-wing press have suggested that money is not the real issue and that police forces , including the Met, should prioritise their investigations and reduce the time spent on tackling non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) after a series of cases involving disproportionate numbers of police officers.

What about the increase in council tax, argued by shadow Home Office minister, Chris Philp, to have been 71% since 2016? According to Full Fact, this isn’t strictly true as it refers only to the London Mayor’s portion of council tax, the Greater London Authority ‘precept’. This is the portion of council tax which helps pay for the running of City Hall and the services it provides.**  In 2016/17, the average Band D council tax bill in London, including the precept, was £1,306. As of 2023/24 it’s £1,789—a 37% increase; perhaps not 71%, but substantial nevertheless.

Sadiq Khan claims that his clean air measures were part of his manifesto and popular with Londoners. This may perhaps be the case, but they are also extremely unpopular with many who live and work in the outer areas of the GLA and also those who need to drive into the capital. On 13^th June Sir Sadiq boasted that his scrappage scheme was a success as a new report found that the scheme has seen 35,094 cars and 17,964 polluting vans in London taken off the streets in exchange for grants (presumably paid for by that increase in the precept). He also claimed that air quality in London was improving at a faster rate than elsewhere in the UK. However, as drivers now have to pay to drive through the London Boroughs in areas where public transport is unavailable this puts increasing pressure on small businesses. Business groups are also distinctly unhappy with the proposals to raise the congestion charge. Many small businesses are finding it increasingly difficult to be competitive as they contend with these extra charges at a time of general cost of living increases. Unemployment in London stands at 6.8% compared with 4.4% nationally.

The homelessness issue has been highlighted by Angela Rayner’s recent announcement that she is proposing to abolish the 200-year-old Vagrancy Act by next spring. Already, police are reluctant to enforce this act and there are fears that without any sort of powers of enforcement police could have real difficulties in moving on those who choose to camp in streets and parks. In January, the BBC reported that the number of people sleeping rough in London was 5% up on 2023 with a 26% increase in those sleeping on the streets. In October last year, local authorities in London reported that they were spending £4m a day on homelessness. The encampment on Park Lane occupied by around 40 - odd people, believed to be largely Roma, on a site owned by TfL, has been the subject of court actions over the last decade, with the latest concluding in May this year.

When Khan was knighted by King Charles earlier this week, he claimed that the King apologised for the fact that it had “taken so long”. Sir Sadiq, magnanimously stated that this was “not a problem”. Apart from the fact that it is generally agreed protocol not to report what was said in conversations with the monarch, why on earth would Charles be apologising for a delay in knighting this “proud Muslim” Mayor? His elevation was announced in the New Year’s Honours list, but it remains unclear to many just what he has been knighted for.  Many critics have slammed it as "a reward for failure".

On Facebook following the ceremony, Sir Sadiq posted: “The London promise: if you work hard, and get a helping hand, you can achieve anything”. I was rather fascinated by “get a helping hand”. What exactly did he mean by this? Was his fellow human rights lawyer, the Prime Minister, giving him that helping hand? Was his association with the King via The Mosaic programme*** of the King’s Trust useful in aiding his elevation? How, given the somewhat contentious nature of his governance of London, did he even manage to secure a third term?

By 2019 the Muslim population in the UK reached 3.2 million people. By the time of the 2021 census this had risen to 3.9 million of which 1,318,755 lived  in London.  This is roughly 15% of the capital’s population. The non-white population of London was at this time 46%.  Given the rapid increase in immigration since then, these numbers will have undoubtedly increased quite substantially. Some further facts may be pertinent here:-

-          According to the ONS, the Muslim population of Britain has increased by 44% in a decade.

-          A recently published list of the most popular names in the UK shows that Muhammad is at the top as of 2022.

-          It is predicted that Muslims will become the dominant population in England in the next two decades. 

-          25 Muslims were elected as members of the House of Commons in the last year’s parliamentary elections.

-          According to the House of Lords Library,  British Future’s analysis of the election results found that almost 14% of MPs are from an ethnic minority background. It compared this to an assessment of census data that suggests 14% of the UK electorate is from an ethnic minority background.

Given Sir Sadiq’s relatively undistinguished achievements during his time in office as Mayor of London, and indeed as an MP, could it be perhaps that this recently awarded gong is not for distinguished and outstanding service, but quite simply for being part of an ethnic minority whose influence is growing and to which our political classes will increasingly need to ‘kowtow’ and the rest of us likewise?

*Non-Brits, indeed non-Londoners, should know that the Mayor of  (Greater) London is a recently created role, dating from 2000; not to be confused with the Lord Mayor of the City of London, a role which has existed since 1189 (Sir Richard Whittington, Dick to his friends, was one).

**If you look up A Guide to City Hall you will be able to download a 32-page pdf document detailing the extensive powers of the Greater London Authority (GLA)

***’Bringing together Muslim men and women from across ethnic and theological differences who are holding positions of religious authority for a leadership programme’.