London mayor Sadiq Khan responds to Green Party leader Zack Polanski’s question during Mayor’s Question Time by speaking Urdu, after Polanski has used South Asian languages in campaigning for the Holborn and St Pancras by-election. Multiple outlets report Khan’s comment was framed as a remark about Polanski’s fluency.
The episode follows controversy over Polanski’s election video, in which he addresses voters in Urdu (and, in separate reporting, also in Bengali) as part of his pitch to become MP. Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds says the video makes him feel “uncomfortable,” while Conservative figures go further, with one describing the message as “poisonous” and arguing that campaigning in a foreign language should be restricted or banned. Green Party representatives respond that democracy should not depend on language, pointing to London’s bilingual population and saying it is sensible to communicate with voters in the languages they use.
Outlets primarily differ in emphasis: some focus on Khan’s “mocking” tone and the Urdu exchange, while others highlight the surrounding political debate over language in campaigning and the reactions from ministers and Conservatives versus Greens’ defence of multilingual outreach.
