Does this councillor know where his on-the-run criminal brother is?

Dear readers — today, we’ve got a story about a Birmingham councillor and a tricky family situation. Last year, a Birmingham man named Fahan Khan was found guilty of supplying crack cocaine and heroin by a court in Ayslebury. But Khan, of Floyer Road in Small Heath, wasn’t there to hear his sentence. He was judged in absentia, having fled the UK for Pakistan during a police investigation. And it’s in Pakistan that his brother, Small Heath Labour councillor, Saqib Khan, has been photographed — apparently attending his fugitive brother’s wedding. What’s going on? 

We’ve got the story below, along with news on how Birmingham has ‘lost out’ in the UK government’s new towns scheme, The Rep’s search for a Shakespeare star, Jaguar Land Rover’s bailout and a buzzy opening in the Jewellery Quarter.

Catch up and coming up:

• At the weekend, Jon Berry told the tale of the last man to be hanged in Birmingham and the last black man to be hanged in Britain: Oswald Augustus Grey. 
• Rhi Storer took on a barnstormer of an investigation last week, digging into how a little Selly Oak primary school ended up in £400,000 of debt — and why parents who tried to raise the alarm were judged to be “bullying” the headteacher. “A great piece. The tensions and conflicts inherent in the role of parent governors are laid bare,” said Stephen Sellers in the comments. Read it below.
• Has your small or medium sized business been affected by the cyber attack at JLR? Get in touch at kate@birminghamdispatch.co.uk
• Know about HMOs in Small Heath? Contact Samuel at sam@birminghamdispatch.co.uk. 

The headteacher’s missing receipts: how did a Selly Oak school get into £400,000 of debt?

Parents at Raddlebarn Primary tried to raise the alarm. The council investigated them for bullying

The DispatchRhi Storer

Photo of the week:

Photo: @birminghamhistory (Instagram). Alan Lamb, Birmingham Cathedral Education Officer, shows Benjamin and Clare Hemmings a model of St Philip’s created by a year 6 class at Bromford Junior School, 1987.

Big Story: Does this councillor know where his on-the-run criminal brother is?

Top line: The Dispatch has seen photographs which suggest Small Heath’s Labour councillor, Saqib Khan, visited his brother Fahan in Pakistan, where the latter has fled while on the run from the police.

Context: In 2019, Thames Valley Police arrested Fahan Khan, who lived in Small Heath,after they stopped a car he was travelling in and found cash and drugs inside. According to this report, Fahan gave them a fake name: ‘Saqib Khan.’ 

The stop kickstarted an investigation which uncovered a Birmingham group who had conspired to supply crack cocaine and heroin in Aylesbury. But while under investigation, Fahan fled the country for Pakistan, and has yet to return. Last year, at least 20 people were convicted for their part in the conspiracy. Fahan Khan was one of them, sentenced to over four years in prison in absentia. 

Does Saqib know where he is? The fake name Fahan gave to police wasn’t random — it’s his brother’s, who also happens to be a Labour councillor in Small Heath, first elected in 2022. Cllr Khan is, of course, not responsible for his brother’s activities. But The Dispatch has seen photographs which suggest the sitting councillor has been in the presence of his brother since he went on the run. Does Cllr Khan — up for re-election next year — have knowledge of the whereabouts of a wanted criminal? 

The evidence: In June 2023, Fahan Khan got married in Kashmir. Posts uploaded by attendees of the event suggest that Saqib was at the wedding. Although the brothers aren’t pictured together, they both were separately photographed posing with a man wearing the same clothes. The two photos were also posted on the same day, 7 June. The screenshot on the left shows Fahan in the middle, wearing a suit, next to his father and a man in a brown polo shirt. 

The poster writes that he is “at the Walima [an Arabic term for wedding] of dear friend from UK Fahan Khan.” It has since been taken down. 

The photograph on the right, which was posted by the same person on the same day and is still on Facebook, Saqib Khan (right) can be seen, also with the man in brown:

*

Silence from Labour: The Dispatch approached Councillor Khan and West Midlands Labour but has not received a response. He has been selected by the Labour Party to stand again in next year’s elections.

Bottom line: Fahan Khan is a wanted man by the UK state. If Councillor Khan has information he failed to report to the authorities, questions are raised about his suitability to run for public office. After Fahan’s conviction last year, Thames Valley Police Detective Constable Laurie Twine asked anyone with information to call 101. He said Fahan “is now unable to return to the UK without facing a lengthy period in prison and we will work with other countries to ensure that he faces justice.” Cllr Khan, that number is ‘101’, if you need reminding. 

Brum in Brief:

🏛️ Birmingham has ‘lost out’ in the UK government’s recently announced New Towns scheme. Locations for the 12 new settlements — each comprising at least 10,000 homes, with 40% affordable housing provision and 20% social provision — were announced last Sunday but the West Midlands region has only been assigned an “expanded development”, in the Wychavon District near Worcester. Urban locations have been announced across the country: including Leeds, Manchester and London. 

🇵🇸 A group calling themselves ‘Birmingham Antifa’ is affixing QR-coded stickers to flagged lampposts that have national flags attached. The stickers contain links for donating to aid to Gaza via the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). In a statement to the press, Birmingham Antifa said the aim was to “harness the patriotic energy of the recent ‘Operation Raise the Colours’ flag movement and redirect it towards tangible help for some of the world’s most vulnerable people.”

💰 A special needs teacher is stuck in limbo with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) after discovering that someone had applied Universal Credit using his identity. Brummie Michael Bene, 51, became aware of the fraud in October last year and is stuck making repayments on the £736 advance taken in his name. He has made more than 80 phone calls and sent more than 150 emails trying to prove his innocence, but the DWP is convinced that the money was paid into his bank account.To make matters worse, Bene said he often cannot get through to speak to an agent because he doesn’t know the answers to the security questions that were set up by the scammer, creating “a truly Kafkaesque barrier”. (Guardian). 

🎭 Lord, what fools these mortals be! The Rep is looking for local actors to star in a new adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in April next year. The theatre has put out a casting call for Birmingham and the West Midlands, as part of a drive to champion regional talent under the new artistic director Joe Murphy. According to the website, they’re looking for “performers who can bring energy, individuality and openness to Shakespeare’s text”. So, whether you’re more of a Hermia or a Bottom, take a look here. 

Quick Hits:

🚆The WMCA Mayor, Richard Parker has announced that West Midlands Trains are to be brought under public control. (X). 

🚙 Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) have been ‘bailed out’ after a £1.5bn loan from the UK government. (FT). 

👨🏼‍⚖️ A Birmingham campaigner for the Justice421 group has called for a public inquiry into the 1974 IRA bombings. (BBC).

🥘 St Paul’s Market in the Jewellery Quarter has opened for business. (BBC). 

🏟️US firm Knighthead Capital Management is investing £100 million into East Birmingham’s Sports Quarter. (HS2).

🏙️ Time Out magazine has declared Digbeth one of the 39 coolest neighborhoods in the world to live. Agree? Disagree? Let us know in the comments. (Time Out).   

Media picks:

🚗 The cyber attack at Jaguar Land Rover could be the most expensive ever to have faced a British firm, experts have said. While JLR has stressed the impact has not yet been costed, an insider article in The Times reveals that round-the-clock shift patterns and regular “Cobra style meetings” are part of the desperate push to get the wheels back in motion. Meanwhile, about a quarter of JLR’s 2,200 suppliers — many of them in the West Mids — are believed to have started laying off staff. Do you work for one of these firms? Is your job affected by the shutdown? Contact Kate at kate@birminghamdispatch.co.uk

🐂 One from the archives. The architectural writer Owen Hatherley reviewed the historian Richard Vinen’s Second City in the London Review of Books back in 2022. Hatherley, somewhat scathingly, writes that: “[Birmingham] offers a sharp contrast to the power represented by the Roman colonial capital, London. [Birmingham is a] city in constant flux, with a bourgeoisie but no aristocracy or court and little literature, a place without mythology or ghosts.”  

Our to do list

🕉️ On Tuesday, it’s the fourth night of Durga Puja — the Hindu festival of the goddess Durga who slayed the buffalo demon Mahishasura. Join the celebrations at the Birmingham Social and Cultural Organisation in Balsall Heath. This one’s free but you need to RSVP at the number here.

📖 On Wednesday, certified tough guys should head to the Junction pub in Harborne for the Brum chapter of Tough Guy Book Club — a monthly group for men who like to read. This one is free to attend and don’t worry if you haven’t finished the novel — they don’t mind.

🎞️ On Thursday, a screening of the James Baldwin documentary I Am Not Your Negro is followed by a performance by the Dark Days Quartet at the MAC. Tickets £14.95.

🎤 On Saturday, multi-award winning comedian Babatunde Aleshe is performing his “infectiously enjoyable” show (according to Time Out) at the Alexandra. Tickets £21.33.