the 2018 Time 100 list of most influential people in the world. Khan has been praised for making London's transport more accessible and reducing the number of polluting vehicles in central London. However, he has been criticised for the rising levels of gun and knife crimes in the city, along with his response to crime in general. Early life Sadiq Aman Khan was born on 8 October 1970 at St George's Hospital in Tooting, South London to a working-class Sunni Muslim-Muhajir family. His grandparents migrated from Lucknow in United Provinces, British India to Pakistan following the partition of India in 1947. His father Amanullah and mother Sehrun arrived in London from Pakistan in 1968. Khan was the fifth of eight children, seven of whom were boys. In London, Amanullah worked as a bus driver and Sehrun as a seamstress. Khan and his siblings grew up in a three-bedroom council flat on the Henry Prince Estate in Earlsfield. He attended Fircroft Primary School and then Ernest Bevin School, a local comprehensive. Khan studied science and mathematics at A-level, in the hope of eventually becoming a dentist. A teacher recommended that he read law instead, as he had an argumentative personality. The teacher's suggestion, along with the American television programme L.A. Law, inspired Khan to do so. He read Law at the University of North London (now London Metropolitan University). His parents later moved out of their council flat and purchased their own home. Like his brothers, Khan was a fan of sport, particularly enjoying football, cricket, and boxing. From his earliest years, Khan worked: "I was surrounded by my mum and dad working all the time, so as soon as I could get a job, I got a job. I got a paper round, a Saturday job—some summers I laboured on a building site." The family continues to send money to relatives in Pakistan, "because we're blessed being in this country." He and his family often encountered racism, which led to him and his brothers taking up boxing at the Earlsfield Amateur Boxing Club. While studying for his degree, between the ages of 18 and 21, he had a Saturday job at the Peter Jones department store in Sloane Square. Legal career Before entering the House of Commons in 2005, Khan practised as a solicitor. After completing his law degree in 1991, Khan took his Law Society finals at the College