Sadiq Khan: You Cannot Be Popular Every Single Day in Government
2/13/20261 hr 7 min
From the son of a bus driver on a South London council estate to the first Muslim mayor of a major Western capital, Sadiq Khan’s story is inseparable from the story of modern London. But with that journey has come a decade at the sharpest end of British politics.
In this episode of Full Disclosure, James O’Brien sits down with the Mayor of London to trace the path from a crowded flat in Tooting to City Hall. Khan reflects on his parents’ migration from Pakistan, the racism he experienced growing up, and the teachers who helped him see that the rooms of power were not off limits. He describes the leap from human rights lawyer to MP, the gamble of running for mayor, and the reality of governing a city through terror attacks, Brexit, a pandemic and deep political division.
They discuss the resurgence of overt racism, the personal cost of public life, and why Khan refuses to let abuse dictate his politics. He speaks candidly about the backlash he faced over equal marriage, the solidarity he believes minorities must show one another, and the responsibility he feels to prove that London remains a city where progress is possible.
Attention also turns to the future of the Labour Party. As calls emerge for Keir Starmer to stand down, Khan addresses the speculation directly. He reflects on party unity, leadership under pressure and the dangers of allowing internal divisions to overshadow the broader task facing Labour. For Khan, the question is not about personalities but about purpose: what Labour is for, who it represents, and how it responds at moments when confidence wavers.
At its heart, this is a conversation about resilience, representation and the fragile idea of social progress. Can a city that once displayed signs reading “No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs” continue to move forward.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
[upbeat music] This is a Global Player original podcast.
James O'Brien· Host0:07
[upbeat music] Hello, and welcome to Full Disclosure, a podcast project conceived entirely to let me spend more time with interesting people than I'd ever get on the radio. Although, I think for the first time ever, and I've lost count of how many of these I've done, that's not entirely true. Uh, Sadiq Khan, welcome.
Sadiq Khan· Guest0:27
Well, I thought, uh, the reason why it's taken you so long to invite me on is because you get fed up with me just doing your monthly shows. [laughing] It's like, you know, "I don't want him on my Full Disclosure podcast."
James O'Brien· Host0:36
Yeah, but this is all about you, not- I'm just, I'm just pleased somebody pulled out, and so, [laughing] uh, that the, that the, the guest they were going to have on couldn't do it, so they said, "Let's text Sadiq, see if he's available."
Sadiq Khan· Guest0:45
So, you know, I'm, I'm grateful to whoever pulled out, which allowed me to be on.
James O'Brien· Host0:48
Yeah. Um, it's nice to see you, and I, I'm looking forward to finding out more about you. One, one of the first things I discovered doing what passes for my, my research is... Well, I thought I'd been saying your name wrong all these years, but, but actually, everybody says your name wrong- Mm.
Sadiq Khan· Guest1:01
Yeah ...
James O'Brien· Host1:01
including, including latterly, you.
Sadiq Khan· Guest1:03
Yeah. Life's too short to worry about how-- You know, there's so many other things to get, uh, animated about. But yeah, so my name is, derives from Arabic. Uh, it's, uh, in the Arabic alphabet, it's Ṣādīq alif dāl qāf. It's Sadiq, which means truthful.
James O'Brien· Host1:20
Mm.
Sadiq Khan· Guest1:20
Uh, one of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, his best friends, was named Abu Bakr, uh, and it's afterwards, uh, that, that word attribute been Sadiq, and so-- But Sadiq means the same