8 October 2010 - 20:30

Former Transport minister Sadiq Khan has become the first ethnic-minority MP to be elected to Labour’s shadow cabinet after winning the vote of 128 of his colleagues.

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - At the age of 40, Khan is also the youngest member elected by Labour’s 258 MPs. Last year, he also became the first Muslim member to attend cabinet meetings when Labour was in office.

The shadow cabinet’s 19 elected members includes 8 women, two more than the minimum under the party’s rules.

But the number overall rises to 11, when including deputy leader Harriet Harman, chief whip Rosie Winterton and Labour leader in the House of Lords Baroness Royall, who retain their posts.

Labour’s front-bench team also includes two sisters, Angela and Maria Eagle, and husband and wife, former schools secretary Ed Balls and former works and pensions secretary Yvette Cooper.

It is up to Labour’s new leader to decide specific posts in his cabinet, but Balls, who came third in Labour’s leadership election, and his wife, are both being tipped to become shadow chancellor of the exchequer (finance secretary).

Khan, a human rights lawyer who has been an MP since 2005, is also expected to be promoted to a more senior position after successfully running Miliband’s leadership campaign.

Earlier this year, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi became the only ethnic minority member of Prime Minister David Cameron’s cabinet, when she was appointed as the co-chair of the Conservative Party.

In 2007, Warsi was also the first Muslim appointed to Cameron’s shadow cabinet as shadow communities minister after he recommended that she be given a peerage in the House of Lords.

Unlike Labour, the Conservatives do not elect their front-bench team when in opposition.

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