{"id":173318,"date":"2025-06-10T15:57:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T15:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/173318\/"},"modified":"2025-06-10T15:57:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T15:57:17","slug":"sadiq-khan-is-knighted-by-the-king-despite-londoners-furious-objections-that-he-is-being-rewarded-for-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/173318\/","title":{"rendered":"Sadiq Khan is knighted by the King despite Londoners’ furious objections that he is being ‘rewarded for failure’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sadiq Khan<\/a>\u00a0received his knighthood at Buckingham Palace<\/a>\u00a0today despite a backlash at ‘reward for failure’.<\/p>\n

The London<\/a> Mayor was given the honour by the King at Buckingham Palace, saying the monarch was ‘chuffed’ to bestow it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the Tories<\/a> have condemned the award claiming that Sir Sadiq has not managed to get a grip\u00a0on violent crime<\/a> in the capital.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sir Sadiq has been Mayor since 2016, becoming the first person to win a third term in the role.<\/p>\n

Before that he was Labour MP for Tooting, serving as a junior minister under Gordon Brown’s premiership.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The knighthood for political and public service was announced in the New Year Honours<\/a>, but was only formally bestowed by the King today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Afterwards, Sir Sadiq\u00a0<\/a>posted on Facebook<\/a>: ‘The London promise: if you work hard, and get a helping hand, you can achieve anything.<\/p>\n

‘Immensely proud to receive a knighthood from His Majesty The King today. Growing up on a council estate in Tooting, I never could have imagined that I’d one day receive this great honour while serving as the Mayor of London.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, 54, received his knighthood at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The honour recognises political and public service and was bestowed upon the Labour politician by King Charles\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Sir <\/p>\n

Sir Sadiq has been Mayor of London since 2016 and was re-elected as mayor of the capital in both 2021 and 2024, making him the first London mayor to win a third term<\/p>\n

‘It’s a truly humbling moment for myself and my family, and one that I hope inspires others to believe in the incredible opportunities that our great capital offers.<\/p>\n

‘I’ll forever be honoured to serve the city that I love – and will continue to do all I can to build a fairer, safer, greener and more prosperous London for everyone.’<\/p>\n

Sir Sadiq said he joked with the King about who was a bigger workaholic and the monarch ‘was very chuffed that he managed to personally give me this honour’.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said: ‘I have got the pleasure of working closely with the King.<\/p>\n

‘We were just comparing who’s a bigger workaholic.<\/p>\n

‘He was very chuffed that he managed to personally give me this honour and he actually apologised for it taking so long – which is not a problem at all.’<\/p>\n

Shadow home secretary and Croydon MP Chris Philp said: ‘Two days ago, volunteers had to take matters into their own hands and clean graffiti off tube carriages because Sadiq Khan was failing to act.<\/p>\n

‘Today the Mayor received his knighthood. This is a slap in the face to Londoners who have faced a council tax hike of over 70 per cent, a surge in knife crime and an increase in red tape stifling bars and restaurants on his watch.<\/p>\n

‘At the same time, the Mayor seems more interested in trying to decriminalise cannabis than making London a better place to live.<\/p>\n

‘Sadiq Khan’s knighthood is a reward for failure’<\/p>\n

Labour’s Emily Thornberry, MP for Islington South and Finsbury since 2005, received her damehood at the Buckingham Palace ceremony for political and public service.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Following <\/p>\n

Following the announcement of the knighthood in the New Year Honours list, Sir Sadiq said: ‘I am truly humbled to have received a knighthood in the King’s New Year Honours’<\/p>\n

\"After <\/p>\n

After his day at Buckingham Palace, Sir Sadiq took to social media to share his pride and encourage others to work hard and be ambitious<\/p>\n

She said she does not usually get nervous but was ‘fizzy with nerves’ after receiving the honour.<\/p>\n

Dame Emily, who was honoured for political and public service, wore brooches belonging to her mother and grandmother in her hat at the ceremony.<\/p>\n

‘My grandmother used to work for Lloyds Bank and she wasn’t allowed to work after she got married. If she knew that I’d become a dame, she wouldn’t believe it,’ the former shadow foreign secretary said.<\/p>\n

‘Neither would my mum.’<\/p>\n

The chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, 64, has previously served on Labour’s front bench in numerous roles including as shadow attorney general and shadow foreign secretary.<\/p>\n

However, she was surprisingly snubbed for a role by Keir Starmer when he entered No10 last summer.<\/p>\n

The PM instead opted to install his old ally Lord Hermer as the government’s top legal officer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dame Emily has since become the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Labour <\/p>\n

Labour politician Dame Emily Thornberry, MP for Islington South and Finsbury since 2005, received her damehood at the Buckingham Palace ceremony<\/p>\n

\"She <\/p>\n

She was joined by her husband\u00a0Christopher Nugee at the ceremony and the couple posed together after Dame Emily received her honour<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sadiq Khan\u00a0received his knighthood at Buckingham Palace\u00a0today despite a backlash at ‘reward for failure’. The London Mayor was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,2633,92,393,4884,518,257,12,14252,9722,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-173318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-buckingham-palace","10":"tag-dailymail","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-king-charles-iii","14":"tag-london","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-sadiq-khan","17":"tag-team-gb","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114659894679325458","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}