(Alamy)
7 min read
Ayoub Khan, one of five pro-Gaza MPs in the ‘Independent Alliance’ group, talks to Tom Scotson about Israel and Palestine, same-sex marriage, and forming a new party
Ayoub Khan, one of the independents swept to power last year on a wave of anger over Gaza, sits on Parliament’s Terrace, sipping a coffee. Over the next half-hour or so, Khan expands on the foreign policy issue that has transformed electoral calculations in what were once Labour heartlands. The 52-year-old MP for Birmingham Perry Bar, a barrister in criminal law, is careful but forthright.
Khan was born in Azad Kashmir, a region administered by Pakistan. His late father, Iqbal, worked 12-hour days in a steel factory while his mother, Parveen, raised him along with his siblings. Khan’s parents uprooted his family when he was young for a new life in search of better opportunities. After studying chemistry at university, then engineering, he turned to law and qualified as a barrister in 2007.
He has served as a Birmingham city councillor on and off over the last 22 years in Aston, where he lives with his wife and six children. For most of that time, he was a Liberal Democrat. A battle-scarred veteran of local government who has contested seven local elections, three general elections, the West Midlands police and crime commissioner election and a European election, Khan has also been the subject of controversy.
Former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg in 2009 was urged to bar Khan after claims of electoral malpractice against an opponent were thrown out in court. The judge described some of Khan’s claims as “unsubstantiated” and “sordid”. Khan failed to have that judgment overturned.
In 2023, in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 attacks, he posted TikTok videos that appeared to query the credibility of reports detailing Hamas’ atrocities. After they were reported, a Lib Dem spokesperson said that Khan had recognised the posts were offensive and had agreed to undergo antisemitism training. However, the councillor subsequently denied both.
He continued to be a Lib Dem until last year, when he quit on the basis that the party had allegedly urged him to “hush up” over the Gaza war. Freed from what he describes as the “shackles” of a national party, Khan expresses opinions that many will find offensive but that resonate with his political base.
The Israel-Hamas war began when Hamas killed 1,200 people and abducted 251 people on October 7. Does Khan think Hamas is a terrorist organisation?
“Well, I mean,” Khan starts, before pausing. “It’s a proscribed terrorist organisation. I’ve made it plain, not just in this chamber here but also in Birmingham city council when I presented a motion, that the terrorist incident on October 7 was a vile crime.
“But the history on Gaza, and what’s been happening to the Palestinians: the clocks didn’t turn up and switch on, on October 7. To take away context is so disingenuous, and the continuous focal point on October 7 has long passed.”
Khan says the focus should now be on the thousands who have died in Gaza since the terrible 2023 attack.
“It’s quite disheartening when you hear the repeated October 7 date. Why not 77 years ago?” he asks, referring to the ‘Nakba’ (‘catastrophe’ in Arabic) of 1948, in which Palestinians were violently displaced.
“Why isn’t that a starting point? And so, this whole episode didn’t happen in a vacuum. There is context, and I think context is very important.”
When, in Khan’s view, did Israel stop defending itself and start committing war crimes? “The rhetoric that’s been coming out from Israeli ministers, especially the far-right ministers, has been something which is quite historic,” he says. “There’s never, in my mind, any doubt that the ethnic cleansing of the whole region would have been a plan made well before what took place on October 7.”
He adds: “Palestinians have been facing October 7 fairly consistently since 2000, haven’t they? How many thousands have been killed constantly, continuously, even when they peacefully protested, and the world has just turned a blind eye?”
Six MPs won seats as independent candidates last July: Khan, Shockat Adam, Adnan Hussain and Iqbal Mohamed, along with Jeremy Corbyn and former DUP member, Alex Easton. Apart from the latter, all were won from Labour. Soon after the election, the five MPs from English constituencies formed a Commons group but have not yet become a formal political party.
Khan says he is in discussions with “a lot of” MPs who are entertaining the idea of joining the group. “Watch this space,” his press officer, who is keen to chip in throughout the interview, tells The House.
Next year’s local elections will include parts of Birmingham and other cities and towns with large Muslim populations. Khan is explicit that one purpose of a party would be to stop the anti-Labour vote splintering.
“Although you will have many Independent candidates standing, my focal point is to ensure that we don’t have multiple Independent candidates standing and splitting votes,” Khan says.
“My prime focus is ensuring that I can support the right candidates across the city of Birmingham. I will be looking at what they stand for, what they represent, are they advocating for fairness, equality and justice.”
At the next general election, in 2028 or 2029, Khan sees all Labour MPs in Birmingham being at “very high risk” of losing their seats.
“I’m fairly confident that we could see the loss of Shabana Mahmood, Tahir Ali, Jess Phillips, Liam Byrne and even Preet Kaur Gill. I can certainly see Independents getting those seats,” he claims.
Many Muslim candidates have run on a Gaza-Green ticket at local elections. Green councillor Mothin Ali, upon winning his ward in 2024, shouted “Allahu Akbar” and said the result was a “win for the people of Gaza”. (He later apologised.) But there are key political differences between the Green Party’s social liberalism and the more conservative views held by some of the Independent Alliance MPs.
The Greens have long been proponents of LGBTQIA+ rights, for example, and were early proponents of same-sex marriage. Asked if he supports that, Khan says: “My personal opinion as a Muslim is well-known. You only have to look at what other Muslims believe, what’s taught.” He adds that he would not dictate what people do in their personal lives.
‘Free mixing’ between men and women in some public spaces is another issue that has been raised by socially conservative Muslims such as Maheen Kamran, an 18-year-old elected as a Lancashire councillor in May. She told PoliticsHome her area could have “segregated areas, segregated gyms, where Muslim women don’t have to sacrifice their health”.
The MP says he has never come across anyone raising segregation as an issue, and compares it with the debate over whether the hijab should be outlawed in Britain.
“People [wear the hijab] out of choice,” he says. “We’re living in 2025, it’s not like we’re living in a third-world developing country where people don’t know what their rights are. Women know exactly what their rights are, and especially Muslim women.”
Khan was recently criticised for calling the grooming gang scandal “a right-wing narrative”. From across the political spectrum, there have been calls for a national inquiry with statutory powers into the rape of young girls across England.
“Grooming gangs, child sexual exploitation, is a vile crime, perpetrators of which should be put behind bars. We need to strengthen the criminal justice system, to ensure that there’s harsh sentences for anyone who engages in that kind of activity,” he says.
“I made my position very clear that when you hear one community being tarnished as though this was something inherent or something that is culturally acceptable, that’s wholly disingenuous, that argument.
“You’ve got more than two million people who have heritage from Pakistan, Kashmir, and a very small minority have been convicted. The vast majority are law-abiding citizens. And when I said that the far-right narrative was being raised to sow divisions, that is precisely my view.”
