Sadiq Khan

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Before entering the House of Commons in 2005, Khan practised as a solicitor. After completing his law degree in 1991, Khan took his Law Society finals at the College of Law in Guildford. In 1994 he married Saadiya Ahmed, who was also a solicitor.

Also in 1994, Khan became a trainee solicitor at a firm of solicitors called Christian Fisher; the firm undertook mainly legal aid cases. The partners were Michael Fisher and Louise Christian. Khan became a partner at the firm in 1997, and like Christian, specialised in human rights law. When Fisher left in 2002, the firm was renamed Christian Khan. Khan left the firm in 2004, after he became the prospective Labour candidate for the Tooting parliamentary constituency.

During his legal career, he acted in actions against employment and discrimination law, judicial reviews, inquests, the police, and crime, and was involved in cases including the following:

Parliamentary career

Before entering Parliament, Khan represented Tooting as a councillor on Wandsworth Council from 1994 to 2006, and was granted the title of Honorary Alderman of Wandsworth upon his retirement from local politics.

In 2003, Tooting Constituency Labour Party decided to open its parliamentary selection to all interested candidates, including the incumbent MP since 1974, Tom Cox. This prompted Cox, then in his mid-70s, to announce his retirement rather than risk de-selection. In the subsequent selection contest, Khan defeated five other local candidates to become Labour's candidate for the seat. He was elected to Parliament at the 2005 general election.

Khan was one of the Labour MPs who led the successful opposition to Prime Minister Tony Blair's proposed introduction of 90 days' detention without charge for those suspected of terrorism offences. In recognition of this, The Spectator—a right-wing magazine then edited by Boris Johnson—awarded him the "Newcomer of the Year Award" at the 2005 Parliamentarian of the Year Awards. The magazine's editorial board stated that he had received the award "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 that was signed by prominent Muslims and published in The Guardian. The letter criticised UK foreign policy and in particular the 2003 invasion of Iraq, stating that Blair's policies had caused great harm to civilians in the Middle East and provided "ammunition to extremists who threaten us all".

Khan had to repay £500 in expenses in 2007 in relation to a newsletter sent to constituents featuring a "Labour rose", which was deemed to be unduly prominent. While the content of the newsletter was not deemed to be party political, the rose logo was found to be unduly prominent which may have had the effect of promoting a political party. There was no suggestion that Khan had deliberately or dishonestly compiled his expenses claims, which were not explicitly disallowed under the rules at that time. The rules were retrospectively changed disallowing the claim, which had previously been approved by the House of Commons authorities.

On 3 February 2008, The Sunday Times claimed that a conversation between Khan and prisoner Babar Ahmad – a constituent accused of involvement in terrorism – at Woodhill Prison in Milton Keynes had been bugged by the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch. An inquiry was launched by the Justice Secretary, Jack Straw. There was concern that the bugging contravened the Wilson Doctrine that police should not bug MPs. The report concluded that the doctrine did not apply because it affected only bugging requiring approval by the Home Secretary, while in Khan's case the monitoring was authorised by a senior police officer. The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, then announced a further policy review and said the bugging of discussions between MPs and their constituents should be banned.

In June 2007, Blair stood down as both Prime Minister and Labour Party leader, to be replaced by Gordon Brown. Brown thought highly of Khan, who moved up the parliamentary ranks under Brown's Premiership. Brown made Khan a party whip, who was therefore charged with ensuring that Labour-sponsored legislation made it through the parliamentary process to become law. In July 2008, Khan helped push through a government proposal to permit the detention of those suspected of terror offences for 42 days without charge. For his part in this, Khan was criticised by Liberty's Shami Chakrabarti and others, who claimed that Khan had contravened his principles on civil liberties issues.

On Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Cabinet reshuffle of 3 October 2008, Khan was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

In 2008, the Fabian Society published Khan's book, Fairness Not Favours. In this work, Khan argued that the Labour Party had to reconnect with British Muslims, arguing that it had lost the trust of this community as a result of the Iraq War. He also said that British Muslims had their own part to play in reconnecting with politicians, arguing that they needed to rid themselves of a victim mentality and take greater responsibility for their own community. In the House of Commons in January 2009, Khan criticised Pope Benedict XVI for the rehabilitation of Bishop Richard Williamson following his remarks about the Holocaust, a move he described as "highly unsavoury" and of "great concern".

In June 2009 he was promoted to Minister of State for Transport. In what was believed to be a first for an MP, Khan used his Twitter account to self-announce his promotion. Though Khan was not a member of the cabinet, he attended meetings for agenda items covering his policy area, thus becoming the first Muslim to attend the British Cabinet. As Transport Minister, Khan supported plans to expand Heathrow Airport with the addition of a third runway.

During this period, Khan served as chairman of the socialist Fabian Society, remaining on its executive committee. In 2009, he won the Jenny Jeger Award (Best Fabian Pamphlet) for his work Fairness not Favours: How to re-connect with British Muslims.

In March 2010, 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."

In 2010, Khan was re-elected as the MP for Tooting, despite a swing against his party of 3.6% and a halving of his previous majority. His campaign in Tooting had been supported by Harris Bokhari, who reportedly used anti-Ahmadiyya sentiment to mobilise Muslim voters at a mosque in Tooting to vote for Khan instead of the Liberal Democrat candidate, Nasser Butt, an Ahmadiyya. In 2019, Bokhari was appointed to join Khan's new Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Advisory Group. In the subsequent Labour leadership election Khan was an early backer of Ed Miliband, becoming his campaign manager. In the wake of Labour's 2010 election defeat, Acting Leader Harriet Harman appointed Khan Shadow Secretary of State for Transport. Khan orchestrated Ed Miliband's successful campaign to become Labour leader, and was appointed to the senior roles of Shadow Lord Chancellor and Shadow Justice Secretary.

In April 2010 it was revealed that Khan had repaid falsely claimed expenses on two occasions, when literature was sent to his constituents. The first incident concerned letters sent out before the 2010 General Election which were ruled to have the "unintentional effect of promoting his return to office", the second a £2,550 repayment for Christmas, Eid, and birthday cards for constituents, dating back to 2006. Under House of Commons rules, pre-paid envelopes and official stationery can only be used for official parliamentary business. Khan's claim for the greetings cards was initially rejected, but he presented a new invoice no longer identifying the nature of the claim, and this was accepted. Khan attributed the improper claim for the cards to "inexperience" and human error and apologised for breaking the expenses rules.

In early 2013, Miliband appointed Khan as the Shadow Minister for London, a position that he held in addition to his other responsibilities. In December 2013, the Fabian Society published a collection of essays edited by Khan that was titled Our London. Khan was also tasked with overseeing Labour's campaign for the 2014 London local elections, in which the party advanced its control in the city, gaining hold of twenty of the thirty-two boroughs. By this point, there was much talk of Khan making a bid for the London Mayoralty in 2016, when incumbent Mayor Boris Johnson would be stepping down. His options were affected by the outcome of the 2015 general election; if Labour won, then he would be expected to become a government minister, but if they lost then he would be free to pursue the Mayoralty. In December 2015, Khan voted against the Cameron government's plans to expand the bombing of targets in the Islamic State.

Polls had suggested that Labour could be the largest party in a hung parliament following the 2015 general election, but ultimately the Conservatives secured victory. In the vote, Khan was returned for a third term as MP for Tooting, defeating his Conservative rival by 2,842 votes. He was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate in the Labour leadership election of 2015, but has said that he was "no patsy" to Corbyn and would stand up to him. He later stated that he nominated Corbyn to "broaden the debate" but did not then vote for him.

On 9 May 2016, 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. This triggered a by-election in Tooting which was held on 16 June 2016.

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.

Source

• In 2009, he became a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council. This entitled him to the honorific "The Right Honourable" for life.
• Six months after his election as the MP for Tooting, The Spectator awarded Khan Newcomer of the Year.
• Khan was nominated for the Politician of the Year Award at the British Muslim Awards in January 2013 and 2015 and won the award in February 2016.
• In late 2016 and 2017, Khan won and accepted the British GQ’s Politician of the Year Award.
• In 2017, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Law.
• In 2018, Khan was conferred Sitara-e-Pakistan for his services to Pakistan by the Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain.
• In 2018, he became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
• In 2019, Khan became an Honorary Bencher of Middle Temple Inn.