London Mayor Sadiq Khan has been awarded a knighthood in the New Year Honours list, along with other politicians such as senior Labour MP Emily Thornberry, Conservative West Midlands Mayor Andy Street, and former long-serving schools minister Nick Gibb. Sir Sadiq said it was already an honor to serve the city he loves and that it was truly humbling to have been made a knight.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy congratulated Sir Sadiq, saying that it was worthy to note that the UK was a place where anyone can go from being the son of a bus driver to being a knight of the realm. He also noted that Sir Sadiq had introduced policies to make London’s air cleaner, built more council homes, and delivered free school meals. However, the shadow home secretary Chris Philp criticized Sir Sadiq’s knighthood as a reward for failure, citing levels of knife crime in London and missed housing targets as among the mayor’s failures.
Moreover, a petition against Sir Sadiq’s award was organized by Conservative councilor Matthew Goodwin-Freeman. Sir Sadiq worked as a human rights lawyer before entering Parliament as MP for Tooting for Labour in 2005. He became mayor of London in 2016, replacing Boris Johnson, and has since won two further terms.
Dame Emily said that she was “both honored and surprised” to have been made a dame, adding how delighted her grandmothers would have been to see this. She has served as MP for Islington South since 2005 and is now chairwoman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. Sir Andy, who was elected as the West Midlands’ first mayor in 2017, said he was only “the front man” for a project to make his position a success and that his appointment as a knight was an “accolade for the people in the West Midlands”. Several former MPs also received honors in the annual list, including former MP Ranil Jayawardena and former Conservative deputy chief whip Marcus Jones, who both received knighthoods
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