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As company filed into Westminster Abbey for the coronation of King Charles III, a younger man carrying a ceremonial gown of blue and gold beneath a glinting chain of workplace walked up the central aisle and took a main seat by the choir.
He was the Proper Worshipful Lord Mayor of Westminister. And he was extraordinarily nervous. Within the automotive, he’d combed his beard and checked his outfit a number of occasions earlier than making his grand entrance.
“You’re in entrance of thousands and thousands — you possibly can’t afford to place a step unsuitable,” Hamza Taouzzale recalled not too long ago.
Simply 22 on the time of his appointment as lord mayor final yr, he’s the youngest ever, and the primary Muslim, to carry the ceremonial function, which serves as a type of good-will ambassador for Westminster and its residents. He represents the realm, which covers a lot of central London, at civic occasions with all of the pomp and protocol that comes with the title, which was created by Queen Elizabeth II by letters patent in 1966.
From the second he was sworn in, Mr. Taouzzale, who grew up in a single-parent family in public housing within the British capital, was catapulted right into a world of energy and privilege.
Along with a stipend of 24,000 kilos ($30,600), he was given a capacious workplace; a researcher; a diary supervisor; and a macebearer, who doubled as his chauffeur and etiquette information for high-profile public engagements, many at Buckingham Palace.
The primary funeral he attended in his life? Queen Elizabeth’s in September.
“You get to see a variety of various life,” Mr. Taouzzale stated. “Westminster is a story of two cities,” he added. “You might have excessive wealth and excessive poverty.”
Westminster’s borders embody a few of Britain’s most well-known landmarks, just like the Homes of Parliament, the Abbey and Buckingham Palace. It’s additionally residence to greater than 250,000 residents, residing in each a number of the nation’s costliest actual property in addition to in public housing, the place many depend on meals banks — a distinction that the opposition Labour Occasion has referred to as a “disaster of inequality.”
Mr. Taouzzale nonetheless lives within the condominium he grew up in. “My grandmother got here to Westminster in her early 20s from Morocco,” he stated. “My mom grew up on this property, and I used to be born and raised right here. It’s a giant a part of who I’m.”
Lively in native politics since 16, he was elected, at 18, as a Labour member of the Westminster Metropolis Council, earlier than incomes each a B.A. and an M.A. in politics. He hopes to make use of his council seat as a steppingstone to nationwide workplace, with a watch on coming into Parliament.
The council, whose greater than 50 members have duty for plenty of authorities providers together with council housing, trash assortment and site visitors, chooses the lord mayor for every one-year time period.
Mr. Taouzzale stated he was stunned to be chosen, because the put up normally goes to councilors within the autumn of their careers.
“I feel it was a press release: an indication that the Metropolis of Westminster is transferring ahead,” he stated. “Earlier than me there wasn’t a single lord mayor who wasn’t from an English or white background.”
He added, “I feel it was an indication that the Metropolis is turning into extra progressive.”
Mr. Taouzzale stated he made some extent of attending occasions in his residence district, Westminster North, since residents in that densely packed, lower-income space felt it was all the time neglected. “Rising up, I had no thought who the lord mayor was — I had by no means seen them. I needed to vary that.”
Most lord mayors have had a accomplice or partner to behave as their official consort. Mr. Taouzzale took his mom, aunt and grandmother to huge occasions at Buckingham Palace; youthful siblings, mates and fellow councilors accompanied him to different appearances.
“I did completely something and all the things,” he stated. “Even when I didn’t really feel prefer it that day, even the unglamorous stuff.”
Mr. Taouzzale’s formal engagements commenced with the Platinum Jubilee final June, celebrating Queen Elizabeth’s 70 years on the throne. At a night live performance, he discovered himself seated within the royal field straight in entrance of Boris Johnson, then the prime minister, and simply behind the Prince and Princess of Wales.
It was a pinch-me second. Mr. Taouzzale was taking surreptitious photographs of the worldwide figures round him and the crowds under as a private memento, or a sort of proof of attendance, when somebody tapped him frivolously on the shoulder and whispered: “You don’t need to take photos, you understand. You’ll be on tv.”
It usually felt, Mr. Taouzzale stated, as if he was main a surreal double life.
“I might go to a very posh, fancy dinner at a members’ membership or a personal residence, the place everybody would appear to already know one another, they’re on this circle, after which I’d go residence and be like, ‘Wait a minute, did I actually simply try this?’”
Amid all of the pomp and ceremony — at most occasions, he was the highest-ranking individual in attendance, forward of even generals, and the final to enter a room (“actually bizarre,” he stated) — got here occasional etiquette snags.
“What fork or knife to make use of was difficult at first,” Mr. Taouzzale stated. “I by no means used to have a couple of fork or one knife on the desk, and immediately I had three of every. It was like, what do I do?”
The months as lord mayor glided by in a blur. He oversaw the chopping of Britain’s nationwide Christmas tree in Norway and switched on its lights in Trafalgar Sq. alongside Sadiq Khan, London’s mayor.
“Hamza Taouzzale’s latest time period as Lord Mayor of Westminster is emblematic of the power of London’s range,” Mr. Khan stated.
Being the primary Muslim to carry the function required some negotiating, as a part of the lord mayor’s job consists of talking commonly on the Abbey, an Anglican church.
“At any time when I did a studying on the Abbey, we had to spend so much of time with the dean to determine what the best studying was,” he stated. “I’m a religious Muslim, I’m not going to cover my religion to learn one thing that I don’t agree with, or don’t suppose is true. So we all the time needed to discover a verse someplace within the Bible, or a studying, that may match my spiritual understanding.”
Now that the brand new lord mayor has been sworn in — Mr. Taouzzale has needed to return the robes, the workplace and the automotive with its coveted WE 1 license plate — he’s considering of the longer term and searching for a job, because the councilor place is part-time solely, paying about $11,500.
He hopes his time period as lord mayor motivates Westminster’s subsequent era.
“Rising up in my space, I didn’t really feel like we have been allowed to have any constructive aspirations. They have been shut down fairly early on,” he stated. “For those who had an honest job, individuals can be like ‘oh, you’re fortunate. Oh, you’re fortunate you went to college.’ Why isn’t that the naked minimal? Why isn’t it the usual?”
He added: “Hopefully, I’ve been in a position to encourage individuals. I hope they’ll say, ‘nicely, if Hamza’s carried out it, I can try this as nicely.’”
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