Sadiq Khan: English footballers inspired me to open up on racist abuse
Sadiq Khan has said English football players like Marcus Rashford have inspired him to start speaking about the racism and death threats he receives.
Khan said today that people “need to know” that “the mayor of the greatest city in the world needs protection 24 hours a day, seven days a week, because of the colour of his skin and the god he worships”.
The mayor, a practicing Muslim with a Pakistani background, has had round the clock police protection for a number of years due to the large numbers of death threats he receives.
This is unlike Boris Johnson who operated without constant security when he was mayor of London.
Speaking at a New Statesman event at Labour party conference, he said “I don’t usually talk about this”, but that events at the Euro 2020 football tournament changed his mind.
Footballers Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho were racially abused after all missing in the penalty shootout of England’s final loss to Italy, with all three speaking out about their experiences of racism shortly after.
“It gives me confidence to talk about it myself, not because I’m playing the victim card or the race card or the Muslim card, but because people need to learn,” Khan said.
“We need to know the mayor of the greatest city in the world needs protection 24 hours a day, seven days a week because of the colour of his skin and the god he worships – that can’t be right.
“When I became a full time politician I never talked about my experience of being a person of colour in parliament. [Labour MP] Dawn Butler and I have some great stories, great stories in the sense of discrimination we suffered, and we didn’t really talk about it much. We were keen to encourage others to be MPs, for others from different backgrounds to be politicians.”