Sadiq Khan

Birthday October 8, 1970

Birth Sign Libra

Birthplace Tooting, London, England

Age 53 years old

Nationality United Kingdom

#5043 Most Popular

1947

His grandparents migrated from Lucknow in United Provinces, British India to Pakistan following the partition of India in 1947.

1968

His father Amanullah and mother Sehrun arrived in London from Pakistan in 1968.

Khan was the fifth of eight children, seven of whom were boys.

In London, Amanullah worked as a bus driver and Sehrun as a seamstress.

Khan and his siblings grew up in a three-bedroom council flat on the Henry Prince Estate in Earlsfield.

He attended Fircroft Primary School and then Ernest Bevin School, a local comprehensive.

Khan studied science and mathematics at A-level, in the hope of eventually becoming a dentist.

A teacher recommended that he study law instead, as he had an argumentative personality.

The teacher's suggestion, along with the American television programme L.A. Law, inspired Khan to do so.

He studied Law at the University of North London (now London Metropolitan University).

His parents later moved out of their council flat and purchased their own home.

Like his brothers, Khan was a fan of sport, particularly enjoying football, cricket, and boxing.

From his earliest years, Khan worked: "I was surrounded by my mum and dad working all the time, so as soon as I could get a job, I got a job. I got a paper round, a Saturday job—some summers I laboured on a building site."

The family continues to send money to relatives in Pakistan, "because we're blessed being in this country."

He and his family often encountered racism, which led to him and his brothers taking up boxing at the Earlsfield Amateur Boxing Club.

While studying for his degree, between the ages of 18 and 21, he had a Saturday job at the Peter Jones department store in Sloane Square.

1970

Sadiq Aman Khan (, ; born 8 October 1970) is a British politician serving as Mayor of London since 2016.

Sadiq Aman Khan was born on 8 October 1970 at St George's Hospital in Tooting, South London to a working-class Sunni Muslim-Muhajir family.

1991

After completing his law degree in 1991, Khan took his Law Society finals at the College of Law in Guildford.

1994

Joining the Labour Party, Khan was a councillor for the London Borough of Wandsworth from 1994 to 2006 before being elected MP for Tooting at the 2005 general election.

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.

2003

He was openly critical of several policies of Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, including the 2003 invasion of Iraq and new anti-terror legislation.

2005

He was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting from 2005 until 2016.

A member of the Labour Party, Khan is on the party's soft left and has been ideologically characterised as a social democrat.

Born in Tooting, South London, to a British Pakistani family, Khan earned a law degree from the University of North London.

He subsequently worked as a solicitor specialising in human rights issues and chaired the Liberty advocacy group for three years.

Before entering the House of Commons in 2005, Khan practised as a solicitor.

2008

Under Blair's successor Gordon Brown, Khan was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government in 2008, later becoming Minister of State for Transport.

A key ally of the next Labour leader, Ed Miliband, he served in Miliband's Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, Shadow Lord Chancellor and Shadow Minister for London.

2016

Khan was elected Mayor of London at the 2016 mayoral election, defeating the Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith, and resigned as an MP.

As Mayor, he implemented the Hopper fare for unlimited bus and tram journeys for an hour, increased the cost and the area covered by the London congestion charge, and introduced new charges (the T-Charge and the ULEZ) for older and more polluting vehicles driving in the city.

He also backed expansion at London City Airport and Gatwick Airport.

He was a vocal supporter of the unsuccessful Britain Stronger in Europe and People's Vote campaigns for the UK to remain in the European Union, and attracted international attention for his Twitter arguments with United States President Donald Trump.

2018

He was included in the 2018 Time 100 list of most influential people in the world.

Khan has been praised for making London's transport more accessible and reducing the number of polluting vehicles in central London.

He has been criticised for the rising levels of gun and knife crimes in the city, along with his response to crime in general.

2020

Khan established the Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm following the 2020 George Floyd protests.

Although Khan initially froze some Transport for London (TfL) fares, he has implemented transport fare rises since 2021 in return for a £1.6 billion bailout from the UK Government during the COVID-19 pandemic, and also lobbied the government to introduce public health restrictions on several occasions throughout the pandemic.

He was re-elected as Mayor in May 2021.