Sadiq Khan — Mayor of London, the first ever Muslim mayor of a Western capital and the man who set a new record as our city’s first mayor to secure a historic third term — is telling me about his mission to give more hugs.
“I went from having six brothers and a sister, to having two children who are women... I think that more female environment has changed my behaviour for the better,” the former human rights lawyer and Labour MP for Tooting tells me, shortly after pulling our former editor Dylan Jones into a warm embrace as he arrives at The Standard offices on Finsbury Square. “Now I make a point of giving hugs to my male friends, to my colleagues, to people I haven’t seen in a while. It’s a way of showing love without needing to say ‘I love you’.”
