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Many congratulations to Sadiq Khan MP, who is Chair of the Fabian Society, on being promoted to Transport Minister, attending Cabinet. With Andrew Adonis in the Lords as Transport Secretary, Sadiq will lead on Transport in the Commons.
Sadiq has announced the move on twitter. (And I have asked him whether we should also twitter him if the buses are late).
And the Wandsworth Guardian has scooped the nationals, reporting Sadiq's claim that transport was “in the blood” because of the decades his father, Amanullah Khan, spent driving the number 44 bus from Wandsworth garage prior to his death in 2003.
Tooting MP Sadiq Khan said his bus driver father would be proud today after he became the first ever Muslim to join the cabinet, as the minister of state for transport.
Mr Khan, whose late father drove buses around Wandsworth for 25 years, was given the huge promotion in the Labour party reshuffle following the expenses scandal. The 38-year-old father of two, who grew up on the Henry Prince Estate in Earlsfield, said he wanted to be an inspiration to all people from humble backgrounds.
He said: “My dad, when he first came to this country, he wouldn’t have dreamt that his son would have gone to the cabinet. If he was alive now he’d pinch himself. When you’re an immigrant and you’re driving buses, working all the hours God sends, and when you live on the Henry Prince Estate, sometimes you can have limited dreams and expectations.
“This is the land of hope and glory. This is a country where the sky is the limit.”
The move does, however, mean that Sadiq will not now get to team up at DCLG with John Denham, his colleague on the Fabian Society Executive, who has been made Communities Secretary. Fortunately, Sadiq had penned his Fabian pamphlet 'Fairness, not Favours' before becoming communities minister.
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