Councillor axed in dispute over fugitive brother

SAQIB KHAN IS TOLD HE IS NO LONGER A SUITABLE LABOUR PARTY CANDIDATE

- JANE HAYNES People & Politics Editor

A BIRMINGHAM city councillor who has been at the centre of a row over his drug-dealer brother, currently on the run in Pakistan, has been cast aside by the Labour Party.

Saqib Khan, currently councillor for Small Heath, has been ditched from Labour's 'approved' list of council candidates for the 2026 elections in Birmingham after an internal review of his actions.

The party decided to dump him after investigating media reports that he had attended the wedding of his younger brother Fahan in the Kashmiri village of Dadyal in June 2023, while Fahan, 31, was seeking to evade two charges of conspiring to supply Class A drugs.

He had been charged in 2021 over his role in a massive Birmingham-based drug running operation involving heroin and crack cocaine moving between the city and Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. He fled to Pakistan and refused to return for his court hearing.