‘I DON’T BEAT HIM ON LOOKS – I beat him on substance,’ says Sadiq Khan, posing for photos by the Thames. Dressed in a sharp navy suit – ‘I wore it especially for Grazia’ – Sadiq is, of course, talking about Zac Goldsmith, his rival vying to become London’s Mayor in next week’s vote.
It’s been a weekend of difficult press for Sadiq. The day before we meet, The Sunday Times ran the front-page story, ‘Labour London hopeful linked to terrorist’. The latest slew of stories hark back to when Sadiq was a lawyer and shared a stage with extremists linked to Al-Qaeda. Zac Goldsmith has jumped on it, accusing him of giving ‘platforms, oxygen and even cover’ to Islamic extremists ‘who seek to do our capital harm’. In the wake of the Paris and Brussels attacks, such accusations are designed to do maximum damage to Sadiq’s campaign. So is he ruffled?
‘I’ve never hidden the fact I used to be a human rights lawyer and I’m proud that I was. One of the great things about this country is that we have a rule of law, a presumption of innocence and due process, and I’ve been upfront about my job as chair of [human rights organisation] Liberty and as a human rights lawyer.’
Sadiq has said he will be the British Muslim who takes the fight to extremists, but what about voters who are concerned about his past? ‘When I first stood for Parliament in 2005, there were extremists outside the mosque where I worshipped, saying people shouldn’t be voting because it was forbidden, and that I was destined to go to hell because I was taking part in man-made law. I was well aware, when I voted for same-sex marriage, that people wouldn’t agree with that and a fatwa was put out against me. Just last week, the police told me I have to be vigilant. It’s not nice having to speak with your daughters about their personal safety.’
In recent days, it’s been suggested that Zac himself isn’t comfortable with the direction of his campaign – at the start, he said he didn’t want to get personal. So what does Sadiq think happened? ‘I don’t know,’ he says, ‘but I am disappointed. Before the campaign began, I said publicly that I was hoping [the Tory candidate] would be Zac, because he’s a nice guy – personable, charming, not your “normal Tory”. I’ve been thoroughly disappointed with the way his campaign’s been conducted.’
Nobody better sums up the phrase ‘working class boy done good’ than Sadiq Khan. You’ll no doubt have heard that he’s the son of a bus driver – every interview mentions it – but his is a remarkable story. One of seven children, he was brought up in South London and slept in a bunk bed at his parents’ home until he was 24 and working as a solicitor. He became the MP for Tooting South in 2005 and last year ran Ed Miliband’s election campaign (awkward). The good news is that this campaign is going significantly better – pollsters are predicting a Labour win.
‘My parents came here in the 1960s,’ Sadiq tells me. ‘My dad came first and lived in a bedsit in Earls Court. He told me it was common to see signs in B&Bs that said “No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs” – and by blacks they meant anyone who wasn’t white. We’ve gone from that to when I was growing up, where I suffered some racism – the P word was thrown around. But now my daughters live in the area I grew up in and they’ve never been victims of racial abuse. That’s the progress we’ve made – but we can’t be complacent.’
Sadiq is passionate about tackling all forms of hate crime. ‘One of the joys of London is you can be Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, gay, black, white and you’re not just tolerated, you’re respected and celebrated. But it’s a troubling fact that hate crimes went up last year. With regard to Londoners of Jewish faith, what you’re seeing is a return to some of the language we thought we’d got rid of in the 1980s – we’ve got to have zero tolerance of that.’
Unlike Zac Goldsmith, who refused to describe himself as a feminist when Grazia interviewed him, Sadiq’s a ‘proud feminist’. Married with two daughters, he says he’ll publish the first ever gender pay audit of City Hall if he becomes Mayor, make sure more is done to keep women safe on the transport network and stop sexist advertising.
As for women who feel the housing crisis is stopping them from being able to move forward with their lives, Sadiq insists he’s the man with the plan. ‘Last year, the largest number of Londoners aged 30 to 39 left London because they wanted to start a family and buy a property – which is why I’m going to be the Mayor who’ll fix the housing crisis.’ He has an ambitious plan to greatly increase affordable housing, give first dibs on new homes to Londoners (instead of foreign investors) and has promised to halt the rise of dodgy landlords with a not-for-profit letting agency.
If Zac’s the groomed, charming Labrador in this mayoral race, Sadiq is the no-nonsense terrier. A compact ball of facts and figures, he’s got answers at his fingertips for seemingly all of London’s ills. Under him, he says, London will see cheaper childcare, more river crossings, more high-density housing and even space for allotments. Sadiq’s definitely got a vision but can he really pull it off? Many would say that London feels full as it is. ‘No, the problem isn’t growth,’ he insists. ‘It’s lack of planning: lack of planning plus growth equals chaos.’
By his own admission, London under his mayorship won’t be full of lolz – don’t expect to see Sadiq dangling from a zipwire à la Boris. ‘I’ll never be as entertaining as Boris, but I think it’s important to get a serious person back in City Hall, someone with the experience, values and vision to make a difference.’