London Mayor Sadiq Khan ‘to be knighted’ in the New Year Honours List – alongside a string of other politicians_Nhy
London Mayor Sadiq Khan is set to receive a knighthood in the New Year honours list, Whitehall insiders say.
He is said to be receiving the award for political and public service after almost two decades in frontline politics.
Having previously been a Labour MP, Mr Khan became the first Muslim mayor of the capital in 2016 and was elected for a third term this year.
According to the Financial Times, the Mayor is set to be handed the honour alongside a string of other political veterans who are all reported to be given gongs in this year’s list.
Commons foreign affairs committee chair and long-standing Labour MP Emily Thornberry is set to be awarded a damehood, while New Labour-era health secretary Patricia Hewitt is said to be another recipient.
Several Conservative politicians are also in line to be recognised with knighthoods.
Andy Street, the former West Midlands mayor who was defeated in the local elections in May after seven years in office, is set to be a recipient alongside Nick Gibb, an MP for more than a quarter of a century who served as schools minister for a total of a decade.
Ranil Jayawardena and Marcus Jones, two Conservative parliamentarians who lost their seats in the July general election, are also likely to get knighthoods.
Sadiq Khan will receive his award for political and public service after almost two decades in frontline politics, insiders say
Commons foreign affairs committee chair and long standing Labour MP Emily Thornberry is set to be awarded a damehood
New Labour-era health secretary Patricia Hewitt is said to be another recipient of a damehood
Sources say Hewitt will be recognised for services to health, and Gibb for services to education, while the others are set to be awarded honours for parliamentary, political and public service.
Before anything is finalised, the draft document of the honours list must be signed off by Sir Keir Starmer and King Charles III.
The revelation comes as the PM is reportedly seeking to reward his former top aide Sue Gray with a seat in the House of Lords after she was forced out of Downing Street in a Labour power battle.
Ms Gray, a former senior civil servant, stepped down as the Prime Minister’s £170,000 chief of staff in October following reports of a clash with other senior aides.
But now she is on a list of political peers the PM wants to appoint in the New Year Honours.
Also on the list are a string of time-served Labour MPs who stepped down at the election, who are being rewarded for making way for new ‘talent’ to enter the Commons.
They are said to include Lyn Brown, Kevin Brennan, Julie Elliott and Thangam Debbonaire.
And Mr Khan is now also set to join the list, after he announced earlier this week that he was pushing forward with his new £900million London Overground line which will connect suburbs, amid Transport for London’s £450million bad debts.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan on a London Overground train in Barking in July 2022
The ‘West London Orbital’ scheme is an 11-mile rail proposal to take trains from Hounslow to Hendon via Brentford, Acton, Harlesden, Neasden and Brent Cross.
There would also be a station at Old Oak Common linking with the planned HS2 line to Birmingham, and a branch after Neasden off to West Hampstead via Cricklewood.
The announcement came after Mr Khan sparked backlash over his £6.3million Overground rebrand with six new names and colours which launched last Thursday.
The lines were renamed Lioness, Mildmay, Windrush, Weaver, Suffragette and Liberty and given new colours – but it was branded ‘predictable woke liberal nonsense’.
The announcement of the changes in February was greeted with bemusement and disbelief at the cost of the project, with critics saying it was a ‘word cloud of virtue’ and TfL should instead focus on improving the reliability of Overground services.
In May, The Labour Mayor thanked Londoners for voting him back in after he trounced his Tory rival Susan Hall.
Mr Khan celebrated his ‘increased margin of victory’ on the previous election after he received 1,088,225 votes, a majority of nearly 276,000 over Ms Hall, who secured 812,397 votes.
In his victory interview, which took place before the July general election, he said he was ‘excited’ by the prospect of working with Keir Starmer and his cabinet.
The Labour Mayor thanked Londoners for voting him back in after he trounced his Tory rival Susan Hall in May
He added that a Labour government working with City Hall for the first time in 20 years would be ‘transformational’ for London and would mean ‘we can achieve much more.’
Mr Khan was one of the first Labour politicians to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, but Sir Keir’s strong support for Israel’s right to self-defence caused anger among many supporters.
He also faced intense scrutiny over his record on law and order during the campaign, after a 14-year-old schoolboy become the latest victim of knife crime in the capital.
