“We risk giving Clarke a halo”

Sadiq Khan has been through the parliamentary wringer recently, fighting off Tory proposals on sentencing and legal aid. But I wanted to look beyond the contemporary issues and look more closely at the real issue – who is Sadiq Khan?

For a start he’s someone who tends to spend Fridays in his constituency office in Tooting. It’s just round the corner from Tooting Bec station. You can’t miss it. Except somehow I did. After ten minutes of exploring Tooting, I find it – a bright, open glass fronted office in what looks like an old shop on Balham High Road. As you approach from the tube station the sign is obscured by the next door neighbour -“Crazy Horse”. They sell skateboards.

Inside Khan is pacing up and down, phone in hand, trying to sort out what sounds like constituency casework, wrapped up in a Ted Baker jacket (not Barbour as I originally thought), jumper and jeans. The glass office front means he’s visible to constituents, many of whom wave at him as they pass or pop in just to say hello. This is Sadiq’s area, and he’s keen to point out that he’s a “Tooting boy”, which he needn’t do, because it’s mentioned in most interviews he’s done in the past. It’s clear this area means a lot to him.

What I’m particularly interested in though is how he thinks the last year has gone. Khan spent the summer of 2010 as Ed Miliband’s No.1 supporter in the PLP, for which he was rewarded with the role of shadow justice secretary. Clearly he has invested a great deal in Miliband – and he’s upbeat. In fact he’s more upbeat than any Labour supporter I’ve spoken to in recent months, even going as far as to say that Miliband has established himself as “an alternative prime minister in waiting” – a boast that I’m not sure even Ed would make at this stage.

It’s clear though that Sadiq sees Miliband’s leadership as a long term process, and that the first part of that process is winning back the right to be heard from the electorate – something he thinks that Labour has now achieved. I ask him if Ed has taken risks. The answer he gives – refusing to accept the premise of the question – betrays that despite the affable, friendly demeanour, Khan is still a skilled politician. He prefers to think in terms of “heavy lifting”, rather than risk, which is necessary to win back public trust. He’s also keen to stress that the Tories failed to win the last election – despite all of their advantages – because they hadn’t gone through significant change as a party. And that’s what Sadiq thinks Ed Miliband is doing. “That’s where the risk taking comes in. Not reckless risks, but taking risks and taking on conventional wisdom.” So he did answer the question after all. Sort of.

An example of where Miliband broke with convention most profoundly was over phone hacking. Khan thinks he was only able to do that because he has “clean hands” and hadn’t spent time “sucking up to the Murdochs”. You can see from his demeanour when he talks about Miliband how much affection he has for the Labour leader. It’s a sort of absolute confidence, the kind that very composed people usually have about their own ability. And Khan certainly has confidence in his own ability too. He radiates calm, despite his somewhat hyperactive speaking style. Information, ideas and theories come rushing at you like a torrent. Before he became an MP he was a lawyer. I imagine he was a good one. He’s not easy to disagree with.

Khan’s career as a lawyer was, by any definition, successful. Cases at the European Court of Human Rights as well as against the Met and the home office meant that he was already something of a “name” before he became an MP – a reputation only burnished by his role as Chair of Liberty . It certainly seems to be a career that he enjoyed and found worthwhile, and he says he was “doing good cases, changing law, setting precedent.” So why give it all up to become an MP? Why would the poacher want to become the gamekeeper? The answer, it seems, is a matter of scale. Now he has the potential to help millions rather than thousands. Perhaps Khan is someone within the party hierarchy still willing to argue in favour of an active state. He certainly seems to believe in one.

One subject that I’m keen to ask him about – as is everyone else who interviews him – is the role of his faith in his politics. Khan was the first MP of Muslim faith to attend the cabinet. In a society that is increasingly secular, and a politics that is resolutely white and middle class, that makes Khan something to a curiosity. He’s clearly influenced by his faith, but he’s also keen to avoid being defined by it:

“I’ve never wanted to be defined by my faith, or by my ethnicity. It’s a very big part of who I am, but I believe we have multiple identities. I’m a father, I’m a husband, I’m a Londoner, I’m a Tooting boy, I’m a Muslim, I’m Asian of Pakistani heritage, I’m a Fabian – many other things. The danger when you’re defined by your faith is you become a spokesperson, inadvertently for that faith.”

Yet the role of spokesperson for mainstream Muslims is one into which Khan cannot always avoid. Only a few months after his election in 2005 the capital was struck by the 7/7 bombings, and the incoming MP for Tooting was a man in demand. Not just from the media either – seemingly he and Tony Blair had heated debates over Labour’s relationship with British Muslims.

It’s hard to image Sadiq becoming “heated” though, even under such trying circumstances. Nothing seems to make the affable MP for Tooting annoyed – something I’d noted both in public appearances and in parliament. Yet there is something that seems to rile him – the beatification of Ken Clarke by some Labour supporters. I suggest to him that he might have more in common with Clarke – considered a social liberal – than some of the ghosts of home secretaries past, who have a distinctly illiberal reputation. That’s a suggestion that he refutes completely:

“What frustrates me is that Ken Clarke has created this myth – especially amongst Labour supporters – that he’s some kind of liberal, and the perception that he’s created is that he’s a social liberal even though he’s a fiscal conservative. But if you look at the evidence over the past 18 months – this is a man who doesn’t even know what rape is and thinks there are different types of rape.”

Ah yes, “rape-gate”, the day where Ken Clarke couldn’t decide which foot to put in his mouth first. Labour called for his resignation, but some party members were disgruntled. To Khan that proves that some in the party have bought into Clarke’s media reputation. “I think we risk giving Clarke a halo”, he says. It’s clear that Khan doesn’t believe his hush puppy wearing opposite number deserves such praise. I think it bothers him. It seems to be the only thing that does.

As we finish up the interview I take one final look around the office. Pictures of volunteers dominate, punctuated by occasional local press cuttings. One, from last year, blares out the headline “Yes he Khan”. I think they might be right. Sadiq Khan is an impressive media performer, a dedicated constituency MP and well thought of within the party. Watch this space…