London Mayor Sadiq Khan (AP)

“Labour Isn’t Listening”: The Party Is Not Engaging With British Muslims

The Daily Mail’s front page on New Year’s Eve screamed “PM’s Reward for Failure as Sadiq Khan is Knighted”. In the Telegraph, senior Conservative figures pronounced that Khan’s tenure as Mayor of London had been marked by increased crime rates and higher taxes, rendering him unworthy of recognition.

The reaction to the knighthood for Sadiq Khan says little about his career. It conveys little of substance about his politics or of its significance for London.

But it is significant for its reminder of the entrenched Islamophobia within certain sections of British society and the media.

As London’s first Muslim mayor, Khan has long been the target of vitriolic campaigns of hate, often steeped in racial and religious undertones. In contrast, his opponents have evaded scrutiny. Some — notably failed Conservative candidates for mayor, Zac Goldsmith and Shaun Baily — have been elevated to peerages despite their own divisive and hateful rhetoric, and despite the preference of Londoners for Khan’s policies and approach rather than theirs.

The same outlets that derided Khan celebrated the knighting of the former West Midlands Mayor Andy Street, the Conservative who — unlike his London counterpart — had lost his bid for re-election.

Baroness Sayeeda Warsi has aptly summarized in her book that Muslims in Britain “don’t matter”. But, at least in Khan’s case, this is a Muslim who matters. As an example of a “different” Briton who succeeded, he must be belittled and ultimately buried under vitriol.

Cutting Down The Muslim

During his tenure as mayor, Khan has worked tirelessly to improve housing, tackle air pollution, and make the capital safer, all while navigating the challenges of Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic.

For this, he has endured relentless hate, including abuse, explicit death threats, and Donald Trump’s insult of “stone-cold loser”. After he supported the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), opponents launched personal and Islamophobic criticisms.

Some critics framed the policy as disproportionately targeting working-class communities. Others went farther, portraying Khan as an outsider imposing policies against “traditional British values.” Racist abuse surged on social media: some detractors linking Khan’s faith to conspiracies about controlling Londoners, casting baseless suspicions about his loyalty to Britain.

During the 2016 London mayoral election, the campaign Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith attempted to link Khan to extremists, despite the lack of any credible evidence. Leaflets were distributed to Hindu and Sikh communities insinuated that he would prioritise Muslim interests over others. While even some Conservatives acknowledged that the tactics were inappropriate and harmful, Goldsmith was rewarded with a life peerage.

In the 2021 mayoral election, some candidates and their supporters accused Khan of failing to represent “traditional British values”. The Conservative campaign of Shaun Bailey was less overtly hostile but played into narratives that Khan was untrustworthy because of his faith and ethnic background. Bailey also received a life peerage.

In 2024, Susan Hall’s Conservative campaign was laden with hate and Islamophobia. She implied Jewish communities felt unsafe under Khan and engaged with far-right content, including support for controversial figures such as Enoch Powell. It remains to be seen where her life peerage will be announced.

The Political Weapon of Islamophobia

The demonization of Khan is not an isolated incident. As Warsi outlines in Muslims Don’t Matter, Islamophobia has become a socially acceptable form of prejudice in the UK. A former chair of the Conservative Party, she recounts numerous instances where anti-Muslim rhetoric has been used to stoke fear and division for political gain. The stereotype of Khan as a security risk contributes a culture where Muslims are “the other”, excluded from the nation’s fabric and treated as second-class citizens.

Khan’s knighthood should have been celebrated as a milestone for diversity and inclusion in British politics. Instead, it has been used as an opportunity to rehash tired tropes, implying that his record is invalid because of his faith and background. The narratives send a damaging message to British Muslims: that no matter how hard they work or how much they accomplish, they will always be viewed with suspicion.

Baroness Warsi’s call to tackle Islamophobia within the Conservative Party and beyond is as urgent as ever. Addressing this issue requires a multi-faceted approach, including greater accountability for politicians who use Islamophobia as a tool, the pursuit of balanced media coverage, and a commitment to celebrating the achievements of British Muslims rather than denigrating them.

The backlash against Sadiq Khan confirms the persistent barriers faced by Muslims in British society. Until these barriers are dismantled, Warsi’s assertion that Muslims “don’t matter” — or when they matter, they do so as caricatures of failure and threat — will betray the UK’s failure of inclusion.