Councillor Asghar Khan has become the city’s 127th Lord Mayor of Leeds, it was announced today.  He will take over from Councillor Eileen Taylor who served as Lord Mayor for 2 years.

Caring Together would like to say thank you to Cllr Taylor for her support over the last 2 years and welcome to Cllr Khan – we look forward to working with you.

From Leeds City Council news:

Councillor Asghar Khan has become the city’s 127th Lord Mayor of Leeds after unanimous support from members of all parties at the council’s annual meeting yesterday (20 May).

Taking over the role from the previous incumbent Councillor Eileen Taylor, who served an unprecedented two years in the role, Councillor Asghar Khan will be accompanied during his time in office through 2021/22 by his wife and Lady Mayoress, Robina Kosar.

Born in Kashmir, Councillor Asghar Khan moved to England in the 1980s as an eleven-year-old boy. He attended Cross Flatts Park Primary School followed by Cockburn High School and then went on to further his studies at Leeds City College.

Since 2011, Councillor Asghar Khan has represented the Burmantofts and Richmond Hill ward as a Labour councillor, serving on the city plans panel, inner east community committee, joint plans panel, scrutiny board (environment, housing and communities) and recently as a deputy executive member.

During his time as Lord Mayor, Councillor Asghar Khan has chosen to support Leeds Hospitals Charity, with a particular focus on raising awareness and funds for renal and diabetes services.

Leeds Hospitals Charity is the dedicated charity for Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. Each year, they provide an additional £5 million in funding to support and make life easier for over 20,000 staff working across our local NHS hospitals.

With over 35,000 people living with diabetes in Leeds, donations could help fund specialist equipment and life-saving research, health and wellbeing initiatives, education opportunities for NHS staff, improvements to the hospital environment and specialist staff.

The Lord Mayor of Leeds, Councillor Asghar Khan, said:

“I am unbelievably proud to have received the honour of service as the Lord Mayor of Leeds for 2021-2022. I believe that my appointment demonstrates the huge diversity of our great city.

“I came to England as an 11-year-old boy, arriving at Heathrow Airport and not knowing a single word of English. I could never have imagined back then that I would later become the Lord Mayor of Leeds. I feel extremely proud of that journey. It has taken me from a working class background, through working as a postman to becoming Lord Mayor. It is an accolade I am delighted and blessed to have achieved. Acting as an ambassador for our city during my mayoral year will give me enormous pride.

“I would like to pay special tribute to the preceding Lord Mayor, Councillor Eileen Taylor, for all her efforts over the last two years during these unprecedented times.”

Esther Wakeman, CEO of Leeds Hospitals Charity, said:

“I’m honoured that our new Lord Mayor, Councillor Asghar Khan, has chosen Leeds Hospitals Charity as the Lord Mayor’s Office charity of the year for 2021-2022.

“This partnership is a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness of Leeds Hospitals Charity and how donations and gifts in wills support Leeds NHS hospitals, including over 20,000 hardworking NHS staff across out city, caring for patients and families. It’s thanks to the generosity of the people of Leeds that we’re able to keep funding things over and above what the NHS pays for, including new medical equipment, life-saving research and improvements to the hospital environment.

“We’re excited about this partnership with the Lord Mayor’s Office and the impact it will have on raising more money to support our NHS hospitals.”

A friend who works for the NHS has been awarded, to add to her one per cent pay bonanza, a memento honouring her invaluable work during the pandemic.

It’s an enamel badge, possibly imported from China, which she likes to call a medal because it sounds more dignified and because otherwise she would have nothing much to show for her contribution to saving the western world except a pile of used PPE.

She will also be able, in her very old age, to thrill young care assistants with tales of her Covid exploits and then, just when they’re beginning to tire, she will show them  her 2021 Covid Medal, which will produce such all-round excitement  that they’ll have to escort  her back to bed.

Of course there’s no call for mockery. I’m sure some NHS staff will be genuinely pleased to have some token recognition of their work; the alternative, given the NHS’s financial state, being no recognition, token or otherwise.

They might also enjoy exploring eBay to check out resale values, although I don’t suppose their returns will start to compensate for the toil and trouble of the pandemic any time this century.

Still, it’s difficult not to sympathise with managers expected to show their gratitude for staff efforts on a budget of nothing whatever, or, if they really stretch things, some enamel badges.

In the 1970s when I was a trainee journalist in Lincolnshire, I worked for an old-fashioned weekly newspaper which made a lot of money but was very reluctant to part with any of it, particularly as a result of paying wages.

The owner, an affable man called Bill, would visit the local office every Christmas and hand everybody a bottle of whisky and, responding to the new pressure for gender equality, a bottle of sweet sherry for the ladies.

Then one year, our National Union of Journalists branch decided  that we no longer wanted to be patronised and short-changed. You can keep your cheap seasonal booze, we told Bill, we want a decent wage throughout the year and we want it now!

Bill responded very quickly by assuring us that he would no longer insult us with free booze, but he couldn’t quite manage the decent wage aspect of the deal at the moment, so would it be OK if he didn’t give us anything at all? Which he never did, despite the union bombarding him with some very severe motions.

This, I think, proves that the workers of the world should grab anything they can get, particularly if it’s drinkable and even if it’s only a badge disguising itself as a medal.