LONDON – Sadiq Khan, the Pakistan-origin feisty mayor of London, has secured the second term in recent elections held on Saturday in the British capital.
The 50-year-old politician, who brought up on London public housing, from the Labour party has defeated ruling Conservative party’s Shaun Bailey at City Hall.
The son of Pakistani immigrant bus driver, was first elected in 2016 when he become the first Muslim mayor of London.
A strong critic of Brexit and Conservative prime ministers including incumbent Boris Johson also made a name when he engaged in a feud with former US president Donald Trump over latter’s travel ban on people from certain Muslim states.
The re-elected Khan in a tweet thanked people for supporting him. He wrote: “Thank you London. It’s the absolute honour of my life to serve the city I love for another three years. I’ll leave no stone unturned to get our city back on its feet. A brighter future is possible, and we’ll deliver it together”.
Thank you London. It’s the absolute honour of my life to serve the city I love for another three years.
I’ll leave no stone unturned to get our city back on its feet.
A brighter future is possible, and we’ll deliver it together. pic.twitter.com/kwA1awEten
— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) May 8, 2021
Born in London in 1970 to parents who had recently arrived from Pakistan, Khan holds law degree from the University of North London and started out as a trainee lawyer in 1994 at the Christian Fisher legal firm, where he was eventually become a partner.
The former human rights lawyer joined Labour at the age of 15. He became a local councillor for Tooting in the Conservative-dominated Wandsworth in 1994, and its member of parliament in 2005.
He still lives in the area with his lawyer wife Saadiya and their two teenage daughters.
