Which English cities and towns have Muslim mayors in 2025?
Executive summary
The only consistently and authoritatively confirmed Muslim mayor in England in 2025 from the provided reporting is Sadiq Khan, the directly elected Mayor of London (a high‑profile, executive post) [1] [2] [3]. Numerous other English towns and cities have had Muslim mayors in recent years — often in annual, ceremonial “civic” roles — but the available sources show that these appointments are numerous, changeable, and not comprehensively documented in a single, up‑to‑date list for 2025 [2] [4].
1. Sadiq Khan: the clear, ongoing example
Sadiq Khan is repeatedly cited across fact‑checks and parliamentary reporting as the Mayor of London and a Muslim, making him the most verifiable example in 2025 of a Muslim holding mayoral office in England, and his role is a directly elected executive mayor rather than a ceremonial civic post [1] [2] [3].
2. Civic (ceremonial) mayors: many past examples, fluid present status
Multiple fact‑checks note that places such as Blackburn, Oldham, Oxford, Luton, Manchester, Tameside, Camden, Sheffield, Rochdale and others have had Muslim civic or lord mayors at various times, but those roles are often ceremonial, rotate annually, and the religion of incumbent civic mayors is not always publicly recorded; therefore “having had” a Muslim mayor is easier to verify than asserting who is mayor at any specific moment in 2025 [2] [1].
3. Reporting that went viral overstated a static roster
A widely circulated poster claiming nine specific towns and cities all “have” Muslim mayors was debunked in earlier Full Fact reporting and follow‑ups: while the named places have certainly had Muslim mayors, they do not all currently have Muslim incumbents, and the social post conflated history with present incumbency [2] [1].
4. Recent lists of Muslim women mayors illustrate turnover and ceremonial roles
A compiled list of Muslim women serving as mayors for the 2023–24 civic year names figures such as Lubna Arshad (Lord Mayor of Oxford), Nazma Rahman (Mayor of Camden), Tafheen Sharif (Mayor of Tameside) and references to Manchester and others — demonstrating that Muslim incumbency is common in ceremonial mayoralties, but also underscoring that these are typically single‑year appointments that change each municipal year [5].
5. The limitations of available sources and official records
Authoritative confirmation for every town and city in 2025 is hindered by two facts: first, civic mayoralty is a largely ceremonial, annually rotating office in most councils and is not consistently indexed by religion; second, the provided sources include fact‑checks and advocacy lists that document past holders or anecdotal appointments but do not maintain a real‑time national register of mayoral religion, leaving a degree of unavoidable uncertainty about the complete 2025 picture [2] [4].
6. How to read competing narratives and what agendas may be at work
Viral social posts and some summaries have weaponized the notion of “Muslim mayors” to imply demographic takeover or policy control; fact‑checking organisations stress the distinction between executive and ceremonial mayors and caution that historical lists were misrepresented as a present fixed roster [1] [2]. Conversely, community outlets highlighting Muslim women in mayoral roles aim to showcase representation progress; both perspectives are selective about context and use the same facts to advance different narratives [5] [2].
7. Bottom line for 2025
From the sources provided, the only indisputable, high‑profile Muslim mayor holding a major executive office in England in 2025 is Sadiq Khan in London [1] [2] [3]. A number of other English towns and cities have had Muslim civic or lord mayors recently (Oxford, Camden, Tameside, Manchester, Luton, Blackburn, Oldham among them in various years), but incumbency in 2025 for those civic posts is changeable and not fully documented in the supplied reporting [5] [2] [4].