LONDON mayor Sir Sadiq Khan, human rights lawyer Parvais Jabbar MBE and psychiatrist Professor Swaran Singh are among the figures set to join the House of Lords after being nominated for life peerages in the latest political honours list.
The appointments, announced by Downing Street on Thursday (16), were approved by the King following nominations from the leaders of the Labour Party, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats.
Khan and Jabbar were nominated by Labour leader and outgoing prime minister Keir Starmer, while Singh was nominated by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.
Khan's appointment is the most prominent among the British Asian recipients. The London mayor, who has led the capital since 2016, becomes one of the country's highest-profile politicians to enter the House of Lords while remaining in elected office.
According to the Guardian, the peerage could allow him to take on a ministerial role in a future Labour government, although people close to Khan said he intends to remain focused on serving as mayor for the remainder of his current term.
Khan has not announced whether he will seek a fourth term as London mayor in 2028. Sources close to him told the Guardian that his priority remains City Hall rather than a government post.
Before becoming mayor, Khan spent a decade as the Labour MP for Tooting. He made history in 2016 by becoming the first Muslim mayor of a major Western capital and has since won three consecutive mayoral elections.
During his time at City Hall, he has overseen London's response to the Covid-19 pandemic, terrorist attacks and measures to tackle air pollution and climate change.
In a statement issued after the announcement, Khan's office said London had allowed him to "go from a council estate to being mayor of London" and that his focus would remain on ensuring other Londoners had the same opportunities.
The statement added that he would continue to devote "his time and energy to standing up for our city".
Parvais Jabbarhttps://deathpenaltyproject.org/
Among the other British Asian nominees is Parvais Jabbar, co-founder and co-executive director of The Death Penalty Project.
Jabbar has spent more than three decades working on constitutional law, criminal justice reform and capital punishment cases.
His work has included advising governments across the Commonwealth on constitutional development and criminal justice policy. He was awarded an MBE in 2012 for services to international human rights and is a Visiting Professor of Practice at the University of Oxford.
Professor Swaran SinghPhoto: Instagram
Professor Swaran Singh is professor of Social and Community Psychiatry at the University of Warwick and a consultant psychiatrist with Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust.
Born and trained as a surgeon in New Delhi before moving to Britain in 1991, he later specialised in psychiatry and established the first NHS-funded Early Intervention in Psychosis service in London in 2001.
Singh's research has focused on ethnic differences in mental health, early intervention and services for young people. He previously served as a commissioner at the Equality and Human Rights Commission and led the independent investigation into discrimination within the Conservative Party. He is also involved in projects to improve mental health services in the Indian subcontinent and sub-Saharan Africa.
The wider honours list includes broadcaster June Sarpong; former UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea; Federation of Small Businesses chair Martin McTague; entrepreneur David Ross and former British Army chief General Sir Patrick Sanders.
As many as 26 new peers are to be given seats in the House of Lords in one of Starmer's last acts as prime minister.
