Afzal Khan

Mohammed Afzal Khan, ; born 5 April 1958) serves as a Member of Parliament for the Manchester Gorton constituency, after his election on 8 June 2017.  He was formerly Lord Mayor of Manchester for 2005–2006, and a Member of the European Parliament representing North West England from 2014–2017.

Political career
Khan was first elected a Councillor in 2000 being re-elected in 2004, 2007 and 2011, representing Cheetham, Manchester ward and also served as Executive Member for Children's Services.

From 2000 to 2004, Khan was a member of the Department of Trade and Industry's Ethnic Minority Business Forum, advising the then, Patricia Hewitt. Following the 2005 London bombings, he became a member of a Home Office working group aimed at preventing extremism. Khan was appointed CBE for his race relations work and in 2011 was suggested as a candidate for Oldham East and Saddleworth. In 2012, he was a potential Labour candidate for the Bradford West by-election, but instead Imran Hussain was selected; Hussain was defeated at the by-election by George Galloway.

Afzal Khan was selected in February 2013 on the Labour Party's list for North West England at the European Parliamentary election of 2014 and, on 22 May 2014, he was returned as MEP to the European Parliament to represent North West England.

In January 2016, Khan was appointed by the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament as Special Representative to Muslim Communities. In this function, Khan visited Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, France and Denmark for work with local Muslim communities but he also inviting groups of young Muslims to the Parliament.

In March 2017 he applied to be Labour's candidate in the Manchester Gorton by-election, 2017, and was officially selected on 22 March. The by-election was cancelled, however, following the dissolution of Parliament for an early general election on 8 June 2017. Khan was again selected for as the Labour candidate for the general election and won the seat.

On 3 July 2017, Khan was appointed by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as Shadow Immigration Minister within the Shadow Home Office team.