Meet London's First Muslim Mayor

The son of a bus driver, Sadiq Khan is now London’s first Muslim mayor. Hopes run high for an egalitarian, multicultural and prosperous future for the city.

- Oscar Rickett

When it became clear that Sadiq Khan was going to be elected mayor of London, the Conservative business secretary, Sajid Javid, sent congratulations to his political rival, from “one son of a Pakistani bus driver to another”. Khan had a joke ready in response: “You wait ages for a Pakistani bus driver’s son to come along, then two come along at once.”

Now, Khan is London’s first Muslim mayor, trouncing Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative candidate who ran a campaign that sought to divide a multicultural city by repeatedly suggesting that Khan sympathised and consorted with Islamic extremists. The tactic backfired, and now the real—as well as symbolic—importance of Khan’s election cannot be underestimated.

On a day when Britain went to the polls in a series of local elections, the vote for London mayor became the most talked about. This is partly because it is the country’s seat of power, but it is also because, in targeting voters on the basis of ethnic background and attempting to paint Khan as a friend of extremists, Goldsmith’s tactics created controversy in a city that is only 45 per cent White British.

The symbolic importance of winning London is something the man himself is only too aware of. Soon after he announced his candidature, he told me in an interview that his election would send a message to the rest of the world, adding, “I’m a son of immigrants, raised on a council estate, from an ethnic and religious minority. If Londoners have the confidence to elect me, the city will be a beacon.”