Mr Sadiq Khan, who was on May 4 re-elected for a record third term as London mayor, rose from humble roots to spar with world leaders and bring consequential change to the British capital.
The 53-year-old Labour party politician – a former human rights lawyer brought up in a London public housing complex – comfortably defeated Conservative rival Susan Hall for a third stint at City Hall, increasing his margin of victory compared to the last contest in 2021.
He now overtakes predecessor Boris Johnson as the longest-serving holder of the post, which notably has powers over the emergency services, transport and planning in the city of nearly nine million.
It’s the honour of my life to serve the city that I love and I’m beyond humbled right now, he told supporters on May 4, adding he wanted to repay the trust you’ve placed in me and deliver a fairer, safer and greener capital.
Victory continues a remarkable journey for the Pakistani immigrant bus driver’s son, who became the first Muslim mayor of a Western capital when initially elected in 2016.
As mayor, he has made a name for himself as a vocal critic of Brexit and successive Conservative prime ministers, including Mr Johnson, as well as for a feud with former US president Donald Trump.
The pair became embroiled in an extraordinary war of words after Mr Khan criticised Trump’s travel ban on people from certain Muslim countries.
Trump then accused Mr Khan of doing a very bad job on terrorism and called him a stone cold loser and a national disgrace.
The mayor in turn allowed an infamous blimp of Trump dressed as a baby in a nappy to fly above protests in Parliament Square during his 2018 visit to Britain.
He once called me a stone cold loser. Only one of us is a loser, and it’s not me, Mr Khan told AFP during his 2021 campaign.
But Mr Khan’s own tenure has not been without its controversies, particularly over last year’s expansion of an Ultra-Low Emission Zone into the largest pollution-charging scheme in the world.
The daily toll on the most-polluting vehicles prompted a fierce backlash in outer boroughs of Greater London, with anger at the extra financial burden during a cost-of-living crisis.
Mr Khan has also been criticised for failing to get to grips with high levels of knife crime and since last year, his handling of large weekly pro-Palestinian protests.
Born in London in 1970 to parents who had recently arrived from Pakistan, Mr Khan was the fifth child out of seven brothers and one sister.
He grew up in public housing in Tooting, an ethnically mixed residential area in south London, and slept in a bunk-bed until he was 24.
His modest background plays well in a city that is proud of its diversity and loves a self-made success story.
