About Afzal
During my election campaign I promised to always put Manchester Rusholme first and now I have been elected, that is exactly what I will be doing in Parliament. - Afzal Khan
Afzal Khan was elected as the Labour MP for Manchester Rusholme in 2024. He previously served as the MP for Manchester Gorton from 2017 until 2024. Afzal served as Shadow Minister for Immigration (2017-2019) and Shadow Foreign Office Minister (2019-2020). When Sir Keir Starmer became Leader of the Labour Party, he appointed Afzal as Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Commons and then Shadow Minister for Legal Aid. Afzal served as Shadow Minister for Exports in Labour’s Business and Trade Team from September 2023 until November 2023. He is also a Vice Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims, and a member of various other All-Party Groups.
Afzal was born in Pakistan, and moved to the UK in 1971 when he was adopted out of poverty as a child. He worked as a labourer in a cotton mill, a bus driver and a Greater Manchester Police Officer, before qualifying as a solicitor and becoming a partner at his own firm. In 2000 he was elected to Manchester City Council, rising to become the first Asian Lord Mayor of the city (receiving the Co-op ‘Mayor of the Year’ award – a first for Manchester), and was later a member of the council’s Executive. Prior to being elected as Member of Parliament, Afzal was a Member of the European Parliament for North West England, serving as Vice President of the Committee on Security and Defence (2014-2017)
In 2008 Afzal was awarded a CBE for his work on community cohesion, inter-faith and local government. In March of 2018, he was awarded the Sitara-i-Quaid-i-Azam, Pakistan’s highest civilian honour, by President Mamnoon Hussain, recognising his contribution to the well-being of the people of Pakistan, particularly in the diaspora, and to Pakistani-British relations. He holds honorary doctorates from the Government College University in Lahore (philosophy) and Mirpur University of Science and Technology (law).