UK Councillor Receives Her $28,000 Salary While Living in Bangladesh

Sabina Khan is a London councillor from heavily Muslim Tower Hamlets, who for the past eight months has been living full-time in Bangladesh, and she intends to remain there, where she is now planning to run for political office. Nonetheless, she has continued to receive a salary of over 20,000 pounds paid for by British taxpayers. More on this scandalous arrangement can be found here: “The councillor raking in £20k a year in taxpayers’ cash… while living 5,000 miles away in Bangladesh,” by Tom Hussey, Daily Mail, January 31, 2026:

A London councillor is being paid over £20,000 in taxpayer-funded allowances while based 5,000 miles away in Bangladesh, the Daily Mail has learned.

Sabina Khan was elected to serve Tower Hamlets in east London but for the last eight months has been staying in Sylhet in the Asian country.

Ms Khan – who was elected to represent Labour before defecting to the controversial Aspire party – is intending to continue to serve until coming elections in May when she will step down.

The reason for her ongoing relocation appears to be her ambition to become a full MP in Bangladesh – and she is said to have notified her party and the council’s monitoring officer here about her movements.

Tower Hamlets confirmed Khan earns £11,898 a year as a councillor and an additional £8,702 as Scrutiny Lead for Resources, a role which requires her to closely examine council spending, a total of £20,600 annually.

Since first travelling to Bangladesh last May she is understood to have spent most of her time in the country, and barring one or two appearances in person has either dialed in to council and committee meetings, sent a proxy representative to sit in on her behalf or missed them entirely.

Her decision to stay in post until May means Khan will have taken home a whole year of allowances despite being based mostly in Asia.

Sabina Khan has no shame about continuing to accept money from British taxpayers while living 5,000 miles away. She’s intent on not resigning from her post until four months from now, and that is apparently the result of Bangladeshi election laws that require candidates not to be receiving money from a foreign country.

Sabina Khan is not alone. There have been many reports of Muslim migrants in western Europe who, once they are receiving welfare payments, choose to return to their countries of origin where those payments go much further. Some of them don’t even let it be known that they have moved abroad, but continue to receive money deposited by the European government directly in their bank accounts, that they can then access from anywhere.

Sabina can’t meet with her constituents to hear their concerns, can’t show up for scheduled meetings of the council in Tower Hamlets, can’t investigate the results of council spending, which would require her to see how the infrastructure is faring, and if spending on other matters to improve the lives of the people living in Tower Hamlets — from job-training programs to health counseling — is in fact effective or is being wasted. None of that can be achieved from 5,000 miles away.

Why haven’t both her salaries been ended? Could it be because she is Muslim, and the Mayor of Tower Hamlets is also Muslim? That Mayor is one Lutfur Rahman, who was removed from office and banned for five years from running again for office in 2015, following High Court findings of corrupt and illegal electoral practices, including voter intimidation, false registration, and misuse of council funds. Despite these scandals, Rahman was re-elected in 2022. Muslims stand by their man, no matter how corrupt. And it seems that their man, Mayor Lutfur Rahman, is determined to stand by his woman — Sabina Khan — by protecting her from cries for her removal and making sure that she continues to receive her two U.K. salaries, even though she is now living on the other side of the globe.