UK: Muslim selected as London mayoral candidate
Date
9/11/2015 12:20:47 PM
(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) The next mayor of London could be a Muslim after the United Kingdom’s main opposition party selected the son of Pakistani immigrants as its candidate for next year's election in the capital.
Sadiq Khan 44 was announced on Friday as the Labour party’s nominee following a vote among party members and supporters in London.
Speaking after the result was announced Khan said: “Like so many of you I love this city. It's given me and my family huge opportunities."
“My dad was a bus driver and our mum sewed clothes to help support our family. We lived on a council estate in south London; my mum my dad my brothers and my sister."
“City Hall might have been a few stops up on the Northern Line but to a young Londoner like me it seemed a million miles away.”
A human rights solicitor by training Khan became Britain’s first Muslim cabinet minister in 2009 when then-premier Gordon Brown made him transport secretary.
The London mayoralty is one of the most powerful politician posts in Britain and if elected Khan would be the first Muslim to hold the role.
His main rival in the race to succeed outgoing mayor Boris Johnson in next year’s contest is likely to be the Conservative Zac Goldsmith a local millionaire and environmental campaigner.
Khan had said before his election that choosing a Muslim mayor of London would show “the haters” how Britain is an inclusive country.
He told The Guardian in July: “The idea that the mayor of London could be son of an immigrant son of a bus driver ethnic minority – and by the way of Islamic faith – would speak volumes particularly when you bear in mind 10 years ago these four men [the July 7 2005 suicide bombers] wanted to destroy our way of life."
“I’m a Londoner first and foremost but it would show the haters in Iraq and the haters in Syria what sort of country we are: a beacon.”
Khan’s success will be seen as a victory for the left of the Labour Party after he defeated veteran centrist Tessa Jowell long seen as frontrunner in the race. He won by 58.9% to 41.1% after other candidates were eliminated in the fifth round of voting.
The apparent swing to the party’s left could be good news for Jeremy Corbyn the left-winger hoping to become Labour’s next leader. Voting for the leadership took place at the same time as the mayoral selection and the result will be announced on Saturday.
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