Afzal Khan

Member European Parliament Mohammad Afzal Khan was born in Jhelum, Pakistan in 1960. He came to the UK in 1971. Afzal Khan finished his schooling without qualifications and had number of jobs, including as a Greater Manchester police constable. He subsequently returned to education and qualified as a solicitor. Currently, he is a director in Mellor & Jackson solicitors in Oldham.

Afzal Khan is a Labour Party politician in the City of Manchester. He is a councillor in the Cheetham ward and Executive Member for Children's Services. He was the youngest and first Asian and Muslim, Lord Mayor of Manchester from 2005 to 2006.

He was first elected as a councillor in 2000 and currently has a majority of 3346 having been re-elected in 2004, 2007 and 2011. He has also served as Assistant Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain and is currently its North West representative.

Afzal Khan was a member of the Department of Trade and Industry's Ethnic Minority Business Forum from 2000 to 2004, advising the then Secretary of State, Patricia Hewitt. Following the 2005 London bombings he was a member of a Home Office working group aimed at preventing extremism.

Afzal Khan was awarded a CBE for his work in race relations and was touted as a candidate for Oldham East and Saddleworth in 2011. In 2012, he stood to become the Labour candidate in the Bradford West by-election but lost to Imran Hussain, the Deputy Leader of Bradford Council and Barrister, who subsequently lost the election to George Galloway.

Afzal Khan was shortlisted in February 2013 as one of the North West's eight potential Labour candidates for the 2014 European Parliament elections and was elected as Member European Parliament in May 2014.