“THE first time I met Sadiq Khan was in 2003,” remembers Barnie Choudhury, former BBC social affairs correspondent. “His firm, Christian Khan, was advising the National Black Police Association in a case involving a senior Metropolitan police officer.
“We needed to get to the Old Bailey, and I suggested we jump in a cab. He was having none of it. ‘My dad was a bus driver, if the bus was good for him then it’s good enough for me. We’re catching the bus’, and we did.’”
If you need a story which sums up Khan, it is that. Working class roots – check. Public service– check. Fighting for underdogs – check. Khan was a human rights lawyer, and he won many a famous cases.
When we speak in December for the GG2 Power List, Khan is relaxed, and he has his trademark steely determination but oozes charisma. He is a pugilist. Unafraid to talk about any topic, and unafraid to speak his mind, no matter who disagrees with him or who he may upset. For example, why isn’t the government doing more to help vulnerable south Asians? “I think it’s a combination of incompetence, and lack of foresight from the government,” he says.
“They don’t seem to have got a grip with this. They explained their slowness in March by saying we didn’t think we’d get the virus. We’ve had eight, nine months since March. The second wave in the scale it has come in wasn’t inevitable. It’s been caused by the lack of proper test-traceisolate support rather than trusting regional leaders like myself, and others across the country or councils.”
Khan agrees it really has been a tough year for Londoners. The pandemic has affected every facet of this country’s capital city. Theatres, restaurants, tourism have been all-but closed since lockdown in March. The government had to put £1.8 billion in emergency funds to bail out Transport for London (TfL) to make sure tubes and buses could run until March 2021.
“It’s been tough. It’s tough, when you got to write a letter to transport workers, families who have lost loved ones because of Covid-19. It’s tough when you see people losing their lives in the NHS, not just patients, but also staff as well.
It’s tough when you’re the mayor of a great city in the world, and you’ve got more than 8,000 deaths because of a pandemic, and some of these deaths were preventable.
“It’s tough when you speak to mayors in other parts of the world, and their governments have been more supportive to them, more supportive to their businesses, more supportive to their families as well. It’s tough when the government doesn’t see you as an ally, that sees us as an adversary, or somebody with suspicion. So that’s why it’s really important for me to continue to have the support of your readers, but also people across our city.”
He wants the government to work with him to keep all Londoners safe.
“I’m really worried about businesses going bust, and people who have been furloughed, been made unemployed, I’m worried about what I have seen in 2020 is what we saw in the 1980s, mass unemployment, and a deep recession. That’s why it’s really important for the government to work with mayors around the country, and council leaders and MPs around the country as allies, and not as adversaries.
“I’m blessed, I’ve not had a family member who’s passed away because of Covid-19. I’m blessed to know my family who work in the frontline have not lost their lives. So, I don’t compare what I’m going through with the grief other families are going through, or those who are in the frontline are going through. It’s really important that I say that, look, you’ve got to show some resilience. You’ve got to show stoicism in this job.”
While he has the responsibility for all Londoners, Khan believes it is important to point out the disproportionate nature of Covid-19.
“The south Asian diaspora has disproportionately been affected by this pandemic. We first noticed this anecdotally when you saw the picture of the first five or six doctors who died, you noticed right away they were Asian. So, we now have confirmation that if you are Asian, you’re twice as likely to die from Covid than if you’re white. If you work in a manual job – think of our shop workers, think of transport, think of care homes – you’re three times more likely to die than if you’re in a managerial or an office job.”
That is why he has used his influence to persuade the equality and human rights commission to undertake a statutory investigation into whether the virus has a disproportionate impact. But his actions have not stopped there.
“We’ve managed to persuade the government for the first time to record ethnicity on death certificates, and this is really important. Unless you measure it, you can’t see how bad the problems are. The other things we’ve done include making sure there are occupational risk assessments when people are involved in the frontline, making sure that there is personal protective equipment available to those who need it.
Also, try and put pressure on the government to learn the lessons of phase one, because what would be unforgiveable is if we saw again, disproportionality in relation to deaths in phase two.
“Here’s the bad news. The earliest data we have from my public health director in London has confirmed that unfortunately, in relation to phase two, there is a disproportionate number of Asians catching the virus. It’s really important that government works with us to make sure that it doesn’t lead to a disproportionate number of fatalities.”
In September, Khan was heckled by a small group of black cab taxi drivers on his way to a meeting at his headquarters, London City Hall.
The video, on social media, showed the venom he can face, but you sense it is his upbringing which sees him through.
He lived with his parents, who emigrated from Pakistan before Khan was born, in a three-bedroom house on the Henry Prince Estate in Earlsfield, south-west London. It was a cramped home, sharing it with his seven siblings – he is the fifth of eight. Indeed, the house was so constricted, he shared a bunk bed with one of his brothers until he left home in his 20s.
Khan also tells the story of how he faced racism when going to football matches in London, so much so he decided to watch games from home and became a Liverpool supporter.
“One of the things that I’ve done throughout my career, both as a lawyer and as a politician, is not to talk too much about some of the racism and Islamophobia I face. Why? Because I don’t want a young person thinking about a career in politics or in public life to be put off by some of the stuff that I go through. But what I’d remind your readers is, for every nasty tweet, nasty abuse you see from somebody, there are literally dozens and dozens and dozens of well wishes and people who are willing to support us, and we have made huge progress. And there’s a reason why people try to bully me and try and stifle me, because they don’t like us and what we’re trying to do.”
Khan did well at school, and he loved football, boxing and cricket, even having a trial for Surrey County Cricket Club as a teenager. Like many south Asians, he studied maths and science at A-level, thinking he would enter dentistry. That was until one of his teachers recognised that his propensity to argue could be turned into an attribute in the courtroom.
Khan tells the story in other interviews of how the American TV drama, LA Law, starring Jimmy Smits as Victor Sifuentes, a charismatic partner in a California law firm, was also responsible for the switch. That ability to use arguments to change lives appears to run through every aspect of his professional life.
“We’re seeing this now from people who have different values to ours. But you know, just like around the world, you’ve seen in the recent past the rise of nativist populist movements, the extreme far right, and those who try and push the politics of division and hatred and fear. But there are also movements across the globe of hope, optimism and unity.
“The election of Jacinda Arden in New Zealand, and the election of Joe Biden in America, these things give me comfort. I’m hoping that people continue to have a hopeful message and vision. I’ll take it in my stride; I will not let anybody bully me or knock me off. And I am so grateful for the continual support your readers give me.”
This year Khan faces a delayed mayoral election. During the last campaign, the Conservatives were criticised for running, what some described as, a racist and Islamophobic election. This time, the Tories have chosen a former youth worker, Shaun Bailey, to take on the Labour mayor. Bailey was an adviser for, and preferred candidate of, ex-prime minister, David Cameron.
Newspaper reports suggest he is struggling to cut through the incumbent’s lead. Further in December, Bailey was embroiled in a row over the use of a fake City Hall letter head in flyers warning council taxpayers of a hike in bills.
“We’re already seeing from my Tory opponent, some of the language he’s using, I worry about,” Khan tells the GG2 Power List. “But I know from the election 2016 that Londoners will always choose hope over fear, unity over division, and will not allow themselves to be divided by those sorts of message that was the message for 2016, and I’m hopeful that the Londoners won’t allow anybody to divide our communities whether they’re by Tory opponent, or others.”
In unconfirmed reports, former Conservative chancellor, Sajid Javid, is said to have congratulated Khan on his 2016 victory with the words, “from one son of a Pakistani bus driver to another”. Again, unconfirmed, Khan is said to have quipped, “You wait ages for a Pakistani bus driver’s son to come along, then two come along at once.”
Few people realise that Khan was once a stand-up comedian, but for him his current role is deadly serious. And he is quite clear that his upbringing plays a part in everything he does. “The message we were taught growing up is go to work but work twice as hard to be considered half as good. Turn the other cheek, don’t get into trouble. You know, it’s really important that we realise that we stand on their shoulders, sacrifices they made, including the founder of AMG, who we remember in our thoughts and prayers.
“This is our country. We’re not going anywhere else, and it’s really important that we lay down roots in this country. One of the great things about the GG2 Power List, that’s prepared by AMG and Eastern Eye, is that it celebrates success. It recognises that we are three dimensional. Yes, we are Londoners, we are British, we are of Asian origin, of Islamic faith or Hindu faith or Sikh faith. We could be sons of bus drivers or could be politicians. But the great thing is whether you are in medicine, journalism, business or politics, we are beacons for people around the world. So, I’m really hopeful for the future. I make sure that I remind myself of the lessons from my parents, from my teachers, and the great thing is I surround myself with positive role models. I’m really proud to be standing on the shoulders of giants.”
For the moment Khan is firmly fixed on serving Londoners. In May, he hopes he will continue his current role for another four years. Diminutive in size, maybe, but a giant and pioneer among south Asians and Londoners, his opponents have always underestimated Khan, forgotten he is a pugilist, and only realise too late when the gloves eventually come off.
