Sadiq Khan, mayor of London

0:00This is The Guardian.

0:07I'm Grace Dent and this is Comfort Eating from The Guardian a podcast where we pay homage to the lesser celebrated foods in life because even as a restaurant critic I believe the food that matters most is often that snack you cobble together when you're curled upon the sofa Each week, I ask my guest to lift the lid on what comfort foods have seen them through their lives. Because you can tell a lot about a person from what they eat behind closed doors.

0:44Friends, hello and welcome. Now, as we smash into a new year together, you find me standing on a chair. I'm taking down these Christmas decorations. I'm going to rip down this blue tack. There we go. And I'm putting my plastic mistletoe back in its box. Fresh start. Now, my guest today is the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. He is at this very minute on his way here in his fancy politician's car. I'm just musing on what 2025 might bring. Personally, I'm planning to be even more myself, more unashamedly, unapologetically Grace Dent. I'll probably refer to myself more in the third person too. I think I can get away with that.

1:39My blood group right now is brandy butter and the only thing in my wardrobe that fits me is a large bath towel. But here are some things I would like to achieve. I'm going to definitely finished War and Peace this year. I am going to learn how to drive. Only seven failed tests so far, people. Next one's a dream. And most of all, I'd like to run a full mile without stopping on a park bench grunting for a while. You know, to be honest, if I don't do any of those things, I'll be happy just carrying on as I am. Just being me. And at the end of the day, that's quite fun. One person who probably did stick to their resolutions is Sadiq Khan.

2:21He was born in Tutin, South London, to a British Pakistani family. He earned a law degree from the University of North London before working as a solicitor specialising in human rights issues. He was elected Labour MP for Tutin in 2005 and served until becoming Mayor in 2016. He won his third term as mayor in 2024, making him the longest serving of all the mayors that London have had. After years of politics, he's no stranger to controversy. But what is he wolfing down between speeches when he's home with his family off duty? I'm going to find out.

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3:47Welcome to Comfort Eating, Mr. Mayor. You can call me Sadiq. It's a pleasure to be here. You know politicians and food don't go together. So I'm taking a big risk doing this, Grace. Don't make me look stupid. I'm never going to make you look stupid. However, I am going to start with a game of mine. who knows the London public transport system the best black cab drivers take the knowledge but a comfort eating HQ I'm going to test you on the TFL olige very good for those who don't live in London TFL stands for transport for London transport for London okay before we talk about food you're in parliament you are late to deliver a speech about clean air you need to be at the southern tip of onesworth common yeah in south london you are allowed to take only public transport yeah how will you get there well firstly i will answer your question but i'm never i'm never late there's a footballer called roy keen he's played for man united i support liverpool but working at this great saying which I love which is being on time means being 50 minutes early and so I think it's a really good rule so the answer to your question is so firstly I've not delivered a speech in Parliament for a long time very confident out of the traps here like doesn't, you don't look like I've derailed you here at all see the puns are flowing as well Grace, I like it so Westminster which is the station that I would take by the tube down to Tootin Broadway I'd go from Westminster to District and Circle Line to Victoria.

5:26I'd go from Victoria on the Victoria line down to Stockwell. I'd then get the Northern line from Stockwell down to Tootin Broadway. Oh, my God. I'd then jump on the 44 bus, which actually is the bus my dad used to drive. I don't know if you know about this. My dad was a bus driver. So to get on the 44 bus at Tootin Broadway, which drives down Gowrell Lane, past my own council estate, Henry Prince Estate on Gowrell Lane, goes all the way to a jump off outside, south side, used to be the Arndale Centre. and do a three-minute walk to the station. That is just, I mean, it's amazing, but it's also actually eerie.

6:02This question was a complete ambush, and I'm going to tell off Ali and Jeannie and Marfie to organise this podcast because they didn't tell me I was going to be tested on the knowledge. She used to like that job as well. Bonus point, if you can tell me where to stop off at an M &S to get a picky lunch. That's a good question. There's actually a Greg's close to your heart at Westminster Tube Station, so I'd probably get a vegan roll from Greg's on the tube to keep me going.

6:36When I invite a guest to my home for comfort eating, I ask them to bring their ultimate comfort food with them. Now, this is the food that helps them fuel a successful campaign, improve public transport and also be a dad and a husband. I don't know what's under this tea towel. I'm going to reveal my comfort food. Please reveal your comfort. And I'll lift the tea towel, which has comfort eating branded on it. Oh, yes. What I've brought is a samosa. Please tell me how to say that properly. So, well, samosa is from the subcontinent of Pakistan, India, or Bangladesh. And we call them samosa at home.

7:10And the samosa I've brought is, actually, I cheated, brought it from a takeaway called Kebabish in Walthamstow. This is a Punjabi type samosa. What I mean by that, Grace, is the pastry is thick. And so the s'mores that my mum used to make at home, where I get the affection for s'mores, so it would have thin pastry. Do I use a knife or do I pick it up and eat it with my hands? Well, good question. So if you were wanting to garner love, affection, support from the Asian diaspora, you use your hands, sis. Okay. But if you're posh, and I know you've got a new job now, so you've got to posh it up now.

7:47You know, I'm going to be a lot posher when I get to the studio, but up until then I'm just going to be quite feral. Oh, I like that when you get the meat one, I get the veggie one. It doesn't matter. Oh, my gosh. Now, there's two types of sauce that we've brought. One is rita, which is like a yogurt sauce, a green sauce, and one is a chili sauce, and you can use the sauces as well. Okay. And also, am I dipping? It's an anacceler to put your meat in the sauce. I put the sauce on your plate, if you want to be. Okay, I'm doing that. For those who don't know, there's a camera here and I'm eating, which is rare for a politician nowadays.

8:21Oh, my God. You're really paranoid about eating on camera, aren't you? I'm just... After what happened to Ed. Well, the great thing about Ed, and here's what people realise. This is a famous bacon sandwich moment. What I said to Ed the next day when it all happened, it kicked off. I said, listen, bro, as a Muslim guy speaking to somebody born Jewish, you know what the imam and rabbi would say? That's what happens when you eat bacon. and so but yeah so the reason why i mean i've always loved samosas and they are great is we were little my mom raised eight kids my dad was a bus driver as you know at the same time as raising eight kids she would she was a seamstress and she had 50p address but she still had time to cook from fresh food and she knew that we loved samosas so she'd send me or my younger brothers to there was a there was a shop that sold chinese food and they would sell pastries to make spring rolls we would then she'd make the mix and we'd we'd we would wrap them for her she'd say look you could say for us to do and so we'd wrap them into as perfect a triangle as we could and she would then fry them so s'mores is used you know as a sort of a dish you have as like for tea or whatever it's not it's not it's not a meal but even now if i'm you know going home late from a meeting or an event you know i'll stop about a local we've got we're blessed with great shops in tooting great restaurants i'll stop off and get a s'mores and eat them and we always we tend fantastic smolter at home does it take you back it brings without a doubt takes you back to that spot on but your mother like working so hard though i mean and then standing up and making all these from fresh yeah and you can't beat having them just when they've been fried because they're hot and you get your kitchen rolled takeaways most of the most of the if not all of the oil and you eat them fresh and as i said with with the relevant sauce you know rite sauce chili sauce or even ketchup so where do you stand on those supermarket ones where you bake them in the oven and they're kind of low fat well here's the thing so so my mother-in-law is is very conscious about health yeah and so she will send over some baked s'mores to which i suppose are better for my health do you ever put on weight you don't seem to be somebody oh yeah do you i mean the two times i put on weight a lot was once when my kids were born because i'd eat my food then they're leftovers because you don't want to waste food right yeah i put on a huge amount of weight And the second time I put on weight was when I first became an MP.

10:35Because everyone always is inviting you for lunches or breakfasts or dinners. You'd often have two lunches a day. And then I twigged. I put on so much weight. Actually, just have a coffee with somebody. You don't need three lunches a day or four. You don't need to have a piece of Victoria's Bunge and a mound of sandwiches. Yeah.

10:56You are the third ever London Mayor. And you're in your third term. Now, this is making you the longest serving mayor of London ever in 2026. That's a decade in the job. What do you think that they'll get you for a decade in the job? What is the gift? Is it a pen? A mug? I don't know. A mug would be great. A big painting of yourself? No, that's the previous man. He'd like paintings of himself, not me. Can I just say to those who maybe think about buying me a gift, I don't want a picture of myself or a pen or a carriage clock. How do you react to gifts? Do you like gifts? I love gifts. I love gifts.

11:32And so this is, you know, you get invitations to parties and it says, you know, please don't bring a gift. Yeah. Do blah or whatever. No, when it's my pie, bring a gift. I want a gift. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm not, I'm not even. Do you unwrap the gift in front of everyone else? Straight away. Straight away. Yeah. See, that's a certain type of person. I ask permission though. I ask permission first because, you know, sometimes particularly, you know, around Christmas time, people want you to open on Christmas day, which is fine. I respect that. and sometimes people are a bit nervous because they're not sure whether you'll be pleased or displeased with the gift and they'd rather you not do it in their presence and stuff and i respect that as well but what if you it's 10 years and you open the box and it's uh it's like a really big garish jumper with 10 years written on it would you are you the type of person that would say have you got the receipt no if you're no no i'm always polite you wait a few days you wear it You photograph wearing it.

12:22You send them the photograph and then take it off. I've done that many times. Oh, I've not done that at all, ever. You had been an MP for a decade and a government minister. Can you remember the moment you went home, into your house, into your kitchen, told your wife Sadia, I am going to run for mayor? Well, I think, I mean, firstly, you can't do the job I've done and I've done in the past without having a supportive partner. you just can't without you realizing it it becomes your identity in an unpompous arrogant way you know i had the conversation with sardin she'd suspected because you know she knew that i wasn't fulfilled as a parliamentarian for a variety of reasons she wants to help in terms of you know which is really important there's then a tough conversation with the kids because the kids were teenagers then and that was more tricksy because it affects them because as it is for their most their life you know when they when we've gone around tooting they've had a dad who's in inverted commas famous which they've used to their advantage so so they know they knew when when when i was in public they could ask for things and i wouldn't say no right you can sweets and clothes and ice cream and stuff because you can't be the bad guy you're at the school fair and they've had an ice cream but they've asked for another one in front of another voter you can't say no right otherwise you're the mean you're a mean dad right so but they were both very supportive they're great kids and they got it and stuff we've seen rocky too yes for those that haven't Rocky's wife is unwell.

13:44She's in a coma. Adrian. Adrian. Very good. So Rocky's training for the second fight with Apollo Creed, but his heart's not already in it because Adrian doesn't want him to fight because he's going to be hurt, right? But then Adrian wakes up. She basically gives him her blessing to train. Does she say win? Win. Win. She goes, win, Rocky. Win, win. Oh, my God. He says, what do you want to do? And he goes, win. He's just a whisper, win. And so Sardin, you know, win. that's the you know she didn't say they didn't voice right she's not been in a coma but you know what i mean and then it gets to the election day at this point are you eating or are you just existing on caffeine what do you eat it's caffeine and high carb snickers uh donuts donuts yeah you like a donut love a donut i'm very superstitious so i've got a ritual that i do about you know what time i vote what i wear there's a bakery called dunn's which is in in uh horns in wood green and duns every mirror election they have they put out donuts with a picture of the two main candidates is it like a rice paper picture of your face or have they made you into a donut a rice paper picture of my face on a donut which is which is a lot less hard work i think he'd be quite offended i'd be quite offended if someone managed to ice me onto a donut i have i have had a cake with my head shaping which i had to cut it's very weird cutting your cutting yourself It's very strange.

15:05I don't recommend it. So hang on, Dunn's have... So Dunn's have this thing. So every year, they have this. So every election, they've got the two main candidates. And basically, whichever donut sells the most, their prediction is that candidate will be the mayor. And I'd heard about this. And so the competitive Sadiq thinks we've got to go there and buy 50 donuts, right? But then my team says, I think that goes against the spirit, man. And it's probably cheating. and so begrudgingly begrudgingly i do always wonder what advisors sometimes do and that's it in that point yeah they did step in yeah it's pretty bad luck if you're just seeing yeah i'm running out with a massive tray of donuts with your own face i'm going i can't hand and heart say whether their motivation was because it goes against the spirit of the competition or they worried about being photographed with 50 donuts you know in a basket and so but but so we start we always start there just to check how the donut salsa go in are you a bakery person do you like do you like a kind of a fancy artisan?

16:04Let me say an interesting thing. So when we were growing up, the oven in our home was basically used by my mum to store pots and pans. The first hot dessert I ever had was when I got free school meals, custard and cake. And we'd have Angel of Delight at home. My favourite was butterscotch. Exactly. This is where I knew I would like it. But also, I can make it, right? As an eight-year-old kid, to be able to make dessert, it's like, whoa, on a really special day, if you make banana and slice bananas, is proper pucker grown-up dessert right in 2016 when you beat zap goldsmith how do you celebrate that night well that night actually the count was very late with there'd been a party organized a commiseration party or a celebration party the results weren't until the next day and it went after midnight so i've got you know some i'm writing redrafting my speech so i've done 54 versions of my speech the party began at 5 p.m but our results didn't come in till midnight so So by the time I turn up at the party, everyone is sloshed.

17:02I mean, everyone is sloshed. I think Bill Bailey was there and did sort of, you know, seven sets because somebody's got to fill the time. So I get there and basically Sadia and I are the only sober people in the room. So I could have said anything that night and people would have clapped. Do you drink a guitar? No, I don't. There's nothing like walking into a party where you can just tell from the moment you're walking. People are just like pivoting on one foot. People are spitting at you by accident. But you've got to remember, when you're in my profession, applause for me is intoxicating, right?

17:32Everyone is sloshed. I say, hello. It's good to be. Can I thank you? And so I've not got a word. I've got no idea what words I said in my speech. You couldn't say anything. Yeah, yeah. So by the third time, though, were people that doing the whole, like, oh, at the party. Or by third, were they just like, oh, here you go. No, there's a new generation of what we call humbly but arrogantly team khan in 2016 when we won that's the first big win my tribe had had since 2005 we aren't used to winning even your labor right but it's not winning for winning's sake i'm very competitive but it's winning for a purpose because people know if we win we can do certain things and stuff so well i was just i'm and here i am asking you about what the buffet was like at these parties but you've obviously arrived so late by that point it's just a ransacked buffet of like two wilted egg and cress sandwiches and i think somebody's put a cigarette in the punch by the third time people are starting to put stuff aside for me when i come because and also i'm now the mayor so people you know look after you right but also i don't feel nice but people are better behaved now i just i just find people get sloshed a lot later than they did when i was growing up and stuff which is nice when you're the only sober person there but also there are a lot more people who don't drink it's really remarkable when i was growing up when i was at university or when I was a young lawyer, even a young MP, I was probably the only person who wasn't drinking.

18:54Now it's interesting. A lot of people don't drink, which is great for me. Yeah, it's good. No one's just telling you the same story and then starting again from the beginning and saying it again and again. I've been to parties where I speak to you and tell you something. Then two hours later, you'll come back to me and tell me something that I told you two hours ago. And I'll say, I'm the source of this.

19:26A lot's changed since 2016. You have seen five prime ministers move into Downing Street. You've weathered a global pandemic. Have these mad Westminster antics cast your very, very steady Eddie vibes, I think, in a more appealing light? one of the things that's happened in the last 10 years is most of the institutions that we grew up trusting banks priests politicians and i could go on have let us down and that's led to a distrust in my profession and other professions as well and i think that that engenders a bigger responsibility and those of us that are sensible you know to actually behave in a certain way to try and restore that confidence that's been lost right do you think when you retire you'll suddenly rediscovered being incredibly silly.

20:18I was speaking to a friend of mine and she lost her seat. And she said, what was lovely was going to the restaurant the next day and not having to be polite. What was lovely was... There's a better one. One of the things that people... My biggest gripe, I love being the mayor, my biggest gripe about being a politician is having to shave every day. She said, the joy of going to the corner shop to buy a pint of milk and not having to put lipstick on and makeup on. So those little things I suspect You know, not having to shave. So when I was a lawyer, unless I was seeing a client, a new client, I'm going to court, I wouldn't shave, I'd have a stubble.

20:50I just can't imagine that. I can't imagine a world where you have got stubble and a tracksuit on. Please tell me that's never happened. It will happen when I step down as mayor, and it has happened in the past year. I'm going to ask about coping with abuse. You've been really open, especially about racist abuse that you've received. Do you notice a link between policy announcement and racist abuse? Is it just a free drop? So you can do a graph. My graph goes back to actually 2016 and the Brexit campaign. Martin Luther King once said, we can legislate to change the way people act, but not the way they think.

21:31And he's right. So I'll give you an example. When my parents first came to this country, there were signs saying, no blacks, no Irish, no dogs. Buy blacks, anybody of color. so the government made that unlawful and you then realized as somebody who may have put up a sign on your window and blacks were allowed in actually these blacks are okay these asians are okay these irish are okay and they changed your attitude towards them because you're mixed with them now some people still may have prejudicial views but they're on the periphery and buried away and i think the brexit campaign a number of things during that decade allowed these things in the periphery to be brought in the mainstream often on it do you look i personally i'll try not to look at the stuff but then when i'm in the middle of some kind of big campaign or whatever tv thing i do look i woke up in the middle of the night and i went down to feed one of my cats and i looked on instagram and somebody had went through every photo same person right in just abuse and i was And it didn't really get me, but I just thought, why has this got to be part of my life?

22:38You know, and I was, I thought about you. I thought, is there still a point where it kind of, you do end up seeing things and it gets to you? First, I'm very sorry for the abuse you received. So a few things. Firstly, don't look for it. I don't look for it, but the problem is my daughters, my wife, my siblings, my nephews and my nieces, my friends, my staff, they see and affects them right and so that's that's what's obsession i'm quite you know stoic i can take this i'm resilient you know i will not cower to bullies but it does upset me when people i love and adore get upset and you will know there are people that love and adore you who will see this stuff now sometimes by the way they may send you this stuff say by the way just so you know they're not they're not doing it to cause you upset yeah they're just trying to forewarn you yes and you may not have seen it because you're not looking for it you're deliberately for your well-being and your mental health not looking for it because it's upsetting but when they send it to you maybe the first time you've seen it but what will upset you as well is that they've had to see it because why should they they didn't ask to do what you're doing they're not in the public eye but they've been upset by association and that that's the hardest and i say this as a piece of advice don't underestimate the silent majority who love and adore you and so you know what i know is the fact that I've won again and again and again, record-breaking results, bigger majorities, all the rest of it.

24:04I know that this vocal minority may try and cow me and bully me, but the silent majority are on your side. But because they're supportive, they're not at 3am doing what the haters are doing. And that should give you comfort.

24:28I'm going to just go back a little bit to what made you into this person that's in front of me. Your parents came to the UK from Pakistan in the 60s. They set up home on the Henry Prince estate in Teetan. You were one of eight children. Tell me about family life. What does this house feel like? If you were to go back now and we opened the door, what's it like? Well, here's the thing. I had a happy childhood. You know, I didn't realise until much later that we were poor. I just didn't know. I just didn't know, right? I didn't know until I was in my third or fourth year of secondary school that people had their own bedrooms and a desk in their bedrooms to do their homework.

25:06I never knew. Who knew? Right. I didn't know until later in my secondary school that people on family holidays, you know, people go skiing at Christmas time. So the only people I knew who dressed small are my teachers. And the first time I saw, because on our estate, nobody went to work wearing a suit because it's just uniform. Yes. Not a suit. I was teasing my sister last week because I reminded her the first time I ever tasted taramu salata was when my elder sister went to university. Because on the whole, somebody brought taramu salata. She brought it home. She was so excited. So we had for the first time ever when my sister was at university, taramu salata and hummus.

25:42You know, what a treat with pita bread. It's like a big thing. Well, there's 10 people being fed in your house at one point. most mums only have about two or three things that they cook all of the time what is regularly being churned out and put onto the can table no my mom was she was raising kids she's working and she's cooking all the time there's always fresh food in the house these big pans we call them patele on on the on the stoves with food in there whenever we want them it's always there i can't remember when we were kids kids eating together as a family right it was like there's trays you put you know food in the trays and watch tv we often you know eat while watching tv it was almost like shift work it was a it wasn't like shift work honestly did you have a tray or did you did you just sometimes have a newspaper we're a trace family but there must have been bits in front of the telly which were the prime spot and then other people must have had to be there's only three channels in 1982 so there's you know bbc one piece two and rtv so the firstly who gets their first gets to choose a channel really important who gets their first gets to do the seat yes now with my elder brothers they're very clever they stay in the scene and send one of us to get their food smart you see they keep the seat they bagsy'd it you can't unbagsy your seat actually on a more serious point i think one of the reasons people say because i used to be when i was a lawyer i did lots of litigation and um and even now you know politics is about compromise and so people often say why are you so good at negotiating i think it's having a big family you You've got to negotiate in relation to channel turning, where you sit, all the rest of the stuff.

27:17And so you often, you know, life's a funny thing. You often, your life experiences often give you skills you didn't realize. You know, simple things like how to treat people with respect and, you know, how to be a good listener and so forth. And so, yeah, it was brilliant. I don't want anyone to feel sorry for me. We had a great childhood. And also, I'll tell you what else, a life skill. On our estate, it was very diverse. you know people of asian background people of you know african caribbean background working class whites we all got on so well yeah and the allyship on our estate so if anybody used the p word against me it was my white mates that stick up for me and beat them up not necessarily me and that's yeah that again is a life school and that's london isn't it so last summer for those of you listeners don't know riots around the country because of the awful murders in southport awful murders in southport riots around the country what happened in london not far from here tens of thousands of londoners come out in allyship for muslims and asylum seekers and refugees and that's my experience of london growing up in my state about you know whether you're black asian white you stick together how did your family get meat in london in the 60s so sorry my dad used to tell us was when he first came uh in the 60s uh it wasn't possible to get halal food i mean the basic the reason why food is halal is the way it's the way it's killed you do a prayer and you kill it in a certain way and so he couldn't have you know lamb beef chicken but once in a few months his mate would save up and there was there was a butcher's in in east london and they would go there to to buy a chicken and it would be a live chicken actually um uh and what they would do is uh one of them would do the prayer and sacrifice the chicken you know to make sure because they didn't have confidence when somebody said it was halal it was really halal because somebody could be lying uh but it'd be a treat once every few months were you ever there when it happened no i'm squeamish i mean i'm somebody i'm somebody who's pleased i never became a dentist because the idea of uh of blood just how did your mom how did your parents how do they navigate ramadan when there's eight kids hey is it you i mentioned how brilliant my mum is uh you know my father's passed my mom is still around but my mom at the So in summer months, a fast takes, you wake up at 2.30 a.m.

29:29and the fast goes until 9 p.m., right? That's the length. So my mom would fast the entire day, right? Make sure the younger children have eaten. But she'd wake up at least an hour before 2.30 and I'd wake up to the fragrance of her cooking fresh paratha with potato inside it. I'd wake up to the fragrance of her making omelets for us, right? so she's gone up before us made us all breakfast she's found time to eat spent the entire day fasting we're like struggling we're lying on the sofa watching tv right we can't cope we're like you know from 6 p.m we're like dead we're just trying to get to 9 p.m she would then spend that you're the first person that's ever admitted that to me like every other person i know that does ramadan never admit their lines that they are hungry but she's but she's she's then spending even though she's hungry those two hours before cooking us a banquet so we'd open our fast with a date of water fresh samosa made for us or pakora pakora is like onion bhaji uh that's the that's the starter we pray we come back there's like a proper meal for us this is at the end this is the end to open our fast sort of 9 30 10 p.m within what's the better to have you gone to bed and my My poor mom then gets up two hours earlier to do it again.

30:4630 days during the month of Ramadan is so. Your mother's wondering. Did you love school? I loved school. I think the migrant mentality, my parents always said to us, listen to your teachers, work hard. And I did. You know, I love school. I had great friends at school. Some of my best friends now are my old school friends. Kept in touch with my teachers. Did you love school then? So here's the thing. So my parents filled in these long, long forms, which meant we were eligible for means testers, free school meals. And I've got a number of memories about free school meals. One is there was a queue at break time for you to collect your free school token.

31:22And I used to be embarrassed, humiliated to collect because my mates were not in that queue and I was in that queue. And I still remember the embarrassment, the shame, the stigma, the desserts I loved. You've got sweet drinks, haven't you? I loved the sponge cake and custard, the sort of vanilla drizzle cake and custard. and once in a while there'd be chocolate cake and chocolate you know there's chocolate custard did you know that there is chocolate custard chocolate custard and so loved it pink custard yeah pink custard that's right yeah and so the desserts were amazing and um and one of the reasons actually why i was so passionate about you know we've brought in free school meals in in london for the first time ever but it's universal everyone is eligible to a free school mill because I don't want kids today in London who get means tested benefits to have the embarrassment and shame that I had.

32:12But I don't want to overuse the word shame, but it was a bit of shame as well because my mates don't have to get this token, but I do. Somebody's holding a sign above me saying, you know, my family's poor and that's not great.

32:32are you familiar with the internet term meet cute no it just means the snapshot of how you first met so there's there's um there's a funny story which i'll tell in a while but the real story is basically there was the head of state the head of graveney where sardy went so sardy went to the posh school up the road okay into the tough boys school down the road her school was mixed yeah and the head of her school was a guy called mr stapleton and mr stapleton would patrol up and down the main road of graveney to stop ernest baben boys going to graveney and we and we and and so you had to get around mr stapleton to get to the graveney girls and were the graveney girls because they were a bit posher were they just they just must have been Can I be frank, Grace?

33:18When you're a teenage boy going to an all-boys school, any girl is exotic and friendly. Sorry, Satham, but Satham is special. But you know what I mean? Yeah, just girls. But it's the mystique and the mystery and all the rest of it and stuff. And, you know, Satham was 17, Satham was 16. Basically, there was a local, it's called a maela in Streatham. A maela means a gathering. And the council then would organise an Asian maela. and uh it was august 1988 uh we met at the mailer i fancied you know hopefully she fancied me you've been married for 30 years 10 of those have been taken up by being mayor by you being mayor okay so the repeat rows that i have with my bloke are mainly about the fridge and the dishwasher what are your hot spots for arguing i mean she likes the freezing weather i mean she i will i mean i'm getting hypothermia and she wants the window open i mean it's just she's temperature it's always been the issue it's about temperature because you i mean i'm gonna say sadiq you came into my house and i've got my house so hot at the moment perfect so hot and i've got my house this hot because my bloke is away so i'm allowed to do this because he hasn't got the thermostat and turned it down and you walked in and i the happiest thing was you went this is so warm and lovely i think i think she should hook up with your partner honestly that's yeah so that's the biggest issue is is temperature yeah she likes to be cold the rat in my room is always off it's ridiculous how does she stack a dishwasher because you can't so here's here's the thing so here's the and by the way now they come on daughters i mean look the the dish there's only four of us in the house that there's no reason why there isn't enough space for our plates and dishwasher but there's still things outside because it's not being stuck properly and there's they've made it so easy there are compartments there for you to put your plates in there's a little thing for your knife and fork and by the way why do I put more in one direction so it's easy to take out and say it's washed properly I don't understand and I mean how do you feel about when somebody drinks the milk but just leaves a little tiny bit of it then puts the carton back in the fridge.

35:32And I've had empty cartons in my fridge. And also, why leave a kettle that's empty? Why not put some water in? So often, you've probably done this, you go into your kitchen, you press the button down for the kettle, right? Yeah. And two minutes later, you go back to pour the water into your tea bag or your coffee. Yeah, but it's empty because the person before, when they'd used it, didn't fill up a bit more. I mean, it's not hard. Well, I was going to say, you two daughters. Now, the wider Kahn family are very heavy on the Y chromosome growing up, there were eight male Carnes and just two women.