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His father was a bus driver and his father-in-law a ticket collector. Sadiq Khan has done a bit better than either of them. He starts his new job today as transport minister.
Mr Khan, who becomes the first Muslim to attend Cabinet, said his late father Amanullah would be proud of his rapid rise to the top tier of the political establishment. Not bad for the boy from a south London council estate.
"My dad, when he first came to this country, he wouldn't have dreamt that his son would have gone to the Cabinet," said Mr Khan, 38.
"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."
Mr Khan, the MP for Tooting, received the phone call from Gordon Brown over the weekend while he was taking his children to the local leisure centre.
He was so surprised he had to call back to check he had heard right.
Mr Khan only entered the House of Commons in 2005, having been a successful human rights lawyer.
Reader views (2)
Will Mr Khan stop using his father's background as a means of pushing his future! Yes, when his parents first immigrated to the UK, they had to live in a council estate - didn't we all. Saqid's fortune changed when his brother-in-law (who incidently heads a department in a leading law firm) helped him. Lets stop using the poverty card and say how it is.
- Zara Iqbal, Tooting, UK, 16/09/2009 12:39
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I don't think that there would be many 'baby boomers', who would share in Mr. Khan's optimism about opportinity in the UK these days.
Perhaps there are more of thes in the legal profession and politics than elsewhere!
- John Clifford, Luzern, Switzerland, 08/06/2009 10:03
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