Sadiq Khan handed knighthood in new year honours list

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has been handed a knighthood in the new year honours, one of a number of key Labour figures on the list. Sir Sadiq, as he will now be known, said that he was “truly humbled” to receive the honour. But critics of the mayor, the son of a bus driver in the capital who secured a third term last year, hit out at his record in office and said many Londoners would be “appalled”. A petition opposing his knighthood, started by a Conservative councillor, has had more than 200,000 signatures since 5 December. Senior Labour MP Emily Thornberry was made a dame, as was former Labour cabinet minister Patricia Hewitt. Mayor since 2016, Sir Sadiq’s time in office has occasionally been controversial.

His green ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) expansion, which led to higher bills for those with more polluting cars, saw protests and vandalism against the cameras and signage used to enforce the new zone. The unpopularity of the policy was also blamed for Labour’s shock defeat in the Uxbridge by-election. He was also recently accused of not taking knife crime “seriously” in the capital by the now Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.

As part of his high-profile feud with Donald Trump, he said the incoming US president’s election win in November would leave many Londoners “anxious” and “fearful about what it will mean for democracy and for women’s rights”. In 2018, his office allowed an inflatable depicting Mr Trump as a baby to fly in Parliament Square during the US president’s visit to the UK. Mr Trump has accused Sir Sadiq of doing a “terrible job as Mayor of London” and was “a stone cold loser who should focus on crime in London, not me”.

The foreign secretary David Lammy congratulated Sir Sadiq, saying he had “delivered free school meals for London’s kids, cleaned up the city’s polluted air and built record numbers of council homes. I’m so proud that Britain is a place where you can go from being the son of a bus driver on a council estate to being the first Muslim in cabinet, mayor of our great capital city and a knight of the realm.” But Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: “Under Sadiq Khan, Londoners have faced a 61 per cent increase in knife crime, a housing crisis and a 70 per cent increase in council tax; they will rightly be furious his track record of failure is being rewarded. “By rewarding the failing Sadiq Khan, Keir Starmer has shown once again that for Labour it is party first, country second.” Nigel Farage said: “Millions of Londoners will be appalled by this honour as Khan has presided over a decline in the quality of life for virtually everyone.” In other fields, actor Stephen Fry and former England manager Gareth Southgate were also knighted. Honours have also gone to a host of Team GB athletes, including runner Keely Hodgkinson, who was named the 2024 BBC Sports Personality of the Year, and mountain biker Tom Pidcock, after the Paris Olympics.

Creator of the Tracy Beaker series, Jacqueline Wilson, has been made a Dame Grand Cross (GBE) for services to literature, while actress Carey Mulligan and television presenter Alan Titchmarsh become Commanders of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). The top gong goes to Nobel Prize-winning novelist Sir Kazuo Ishiguro, who was made a Companion of Honour for services to literature. King Charles has also personally honoured senior staff from his medical team during his cancer treatment. GP Dr Douglas Glass, otherwise known as the apothecary to the King, and his physician Professor Richard Leach have been recognised for their service to the monarch and the royal family. The honours come after the King and the Princess of Wales’s double cancer diagnoses this year, with Charles continuing his treatment while resuming near full duties.

Dr Glass served as Queen Elizabeth II’s apothecary and was the medical professional in attendance at Balmoral when she died. On his honour, Sir Sadiq said: “I couldn’t have dreamed when growing up on a council estate in south London that I would one day be mayor of London. “It’s the honour of my life to serve the city I love and I will continue to build the fairer, safer, greener and more prosperous London that all of the capital’s communities deserve.” Born in Tooting, south London, he worked as a human rights lawyer before becoming an MP in 2005. He later served as a junior minister under Gordon Brown and then as shadow justice secretary for Ed Miliband.

His election in 2016 saw him become the first Muslim mayor of a major Western city when he defeated Conservative Zac Goldsmith to succeed Boris Johnson. Former Labour cabinet minister Patricia Hewitt was made a dame — a decade after she was forced to apologise for having “got it wrong” with a body she headed in the 1970s, the National Council for Civil Liberties, and its links to a pro-paedophile group. Emily Thornberry was also made a dame, just months after her surprise exclusion from Sir Keir Starmer’s first cabinet after the election.

She said she was “both honoured and surprised”. She said: “I think of my grandmothers, neither of whom were even allowed to work as married women, and think how utterly delighted they’d be to see this. “My husband was knighted a few years ago and I never felt comfortable sharing his title, calling myself ‘Lady Nugee’, but Dame Emily is a name I’d be proud to go by.” Conservatives Andy Street, the former West Midlands mayor, and Nick Gibb, the former long-serving schools minister, also received knighthoods. There was also an honour for Labour’s Carol Linforth who famously took off Sir Keir Starmer’s jacket after a heckler threw glitter over him during a speech to the party’s annual conference. Footage of Sir Keir then rolling up his sleeves, both literally and metaphorically, cemented the image of him as a PM in waiting.

Several former MPs also received honours in the annual list. Liz Truss ally MP Ranil Jayawardena has been made a knight, alongside Rishi Sunak’s former deputy chief whip Marcus Jones. Former Labour MP Kate Hollern, who lost her Blackburn seat to Independent candidate Adnan Hussain in July, has been made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). No 10 emphasised this honours list was an “entirely independent process” carried out by a separate committee, which is independent of government, unlike the “resignation honours” lists former PMs collate after leaving office. More than 1,200 people from across the UK received honours in the latest list.

The prime minister said: “Each and every day, ordinary people go out and do extraordinary things for their communities. “They represent the very best of the UK and that core value of service which I put at the centre of everything this government does.

“The new year honours list celebrates more of these unsung heroes, and I thank them for their incredible contribution.”