Labour City Councillor for Cowley Marsh Mohammed Abbasi was elected Oxford’s first ever Pakistani Lord Mayor on Monday.

Mohammed said “It is a great honour to serve the city in this way. I am looking forward to the coming year as Lord Mayor and to meeting with a large variety of people and community groups.”

Oxford’s Lord Mayor is the most senior, in terms of total years of service, councillor to have not yet undertaken the role. The outgoing Lord Mayor is Labour City Councillor Dee Sinclair.

Mohammed previously served as Sheriff of Oxford, and stepped in as Lord Mayor in 2013 when Alan Armitage resigned.

The new Deputy Lord Mayor is Green councillor Craig Simmons, and the new Sheriff is Labour councillor Rae Humberstone.

In another milestone for Oxford’s ethnic minority communities, Labour’s Farida Anwar was elected Oxford’s first Bangladeshi councillor for Headington Hill & Northway on May 22nd.