Sadiq Khan

Sadiq Khan (Lawyer, Politician)
Born	Sadiq Aman Khan 8 October 1970 London
Alma mater	University of North London
Religion	Islam
Spouse	Saadiya Ahmed
Member of	British-American Project, Franco-British Colloque
Shadow Minister for London  In office 16 January 2013 - 11 May 2015 Preceded by Tessa Jowell  Shadow Secretary of State for Justice,  Shadow Lord Chancellor In office 8 October 2010 - 11 May 2015  Shadow Secretary of State for Transport  In office 14 May 2010 - 8 October 2010 Succeeded by Maria Eagle  Minister of State for Transport In office 8 June 2009 - 11 May 2010  Minister of State for Communities In office 4 October 2008 - 8 June 2009  Member of Parliament for Tooting In office 5 May 2005 - Present

Sadiq Khan (born 8 October 1970) – a former human rights lawyer – is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting in South London since 2005. He is standing as the Labour Party's candidate in the 2016 London mayoral election.

Landslide?

In January 2016, Sadiq Khan was reported to be set for a landslide victory over his Conservative rival Zac Goldsmith in the race to be Mayor of London. Khan, who began the new year with a pledge to freeze London transport fares, is now ten points clear of Goldsmith according to the YouGov poll for LBC. Khan is on 45% compared to just 35% for Goldsmith, once undecided and non-voters have been excluded.

If borne out on 5 May 2016, it would be the largest victory for any candidate since the London mayoralty was set up and a major boost for the Labour party.

Look at second preferences

Asa Bennett, the Assistant Comment Editor at the Daily Telegraph, told LBC that Zac Goldsmith's team does not need to be too worried, saying:

"Boris has shown he can come from behind. For example, in the 2012 campaign, about six months before, Johnson was at 39% and Livingstone at 45%. So this is very surmountable. The thing that people aren't looking at is second preferences.

"When it comes down to it, Zac will have the Greens in the bag who would love to vote for the former editor of The Ecologist magazine. He'll have UKIP in the bag, given he's a Eurosceptic.

"But Sadiq will be under threat from some left-wing voters who are going to be tempted by George Galloway, who is trying to out-Corbyn Sadiq."

No unnecessary risks

Sadiq Khan's team know they face a struggle to win back the sort of working class outer London voters that the party lost to Boris in both 2008 and 2012. Whatever the polls say, Labour needs to reach beyond their comfort zone if they are to see off Goldsmith in May. That said, Khan's campaign are also not willing to take any unnecessary risks either. And with Ken Livingstone's long history of putting his foot in it, Khan's team appear to believe that standing beside Livingstone would be the biggest unnecessary risk of all.

London bombings slur

Referring to the 7 July 2005 London bombings in a desperate attempt to avoid defeat, Zac Goldsmith wrote in the Mail on Sunday on 1 May 2016:

“On Thursday, are we really going to hand the world’s greatest city to a Labour Party that thinks terrorists are its friends?”

To which, Sadiq Khan tweeted in response:

@ZacGoldsmith's campaign is getting more desperate and divisive by the day.