Humza Haroon Yousaf was sworn in as Scotland’s new First Minister on March 29, 2023. He become the first ever racial minority and Muslim to lead the country since it was created in 1999. He takes over from Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first female leader and the country’s longest-serving one yet. The leader of the Scottish National Party, Yousaf is also at 37 the youngest first minister to lead a major UK party. He was born on April 7, 1985, in Glasgow. His grandfather moved to Scotland in 1962 from Mian Channu in Punjab, Pakistan. Yousaf’s mother, also of South Asian descent, emigrated to Scotland from Kenya. [fn]https://www.elrec.org.uk/hamza-yusuf-msp/[/fn]
Yousaf worked and fundraised for various charities including Islamic Relief UK. He went to the University of Glasgow to study Politics. While at the university, Yousaf was a prominent figure in student politics and the President of the Glasgow University Muslim Students Association. He graduated with an MA in 2007. Yousaf first entered the world of politics in 2007, as a parliamentary assistant to MSP Bashir Ahmad. After working as an assistant to Ahmad and a few other MSPs including Nicola Sturgeon, he was elected to the Scottish Parliament himself in 2011, aged slightly more than 25 years old. Yousaf thus became the youngest-ever member of the Scottish Parliament.[fn]https://www.scotsman.com/health/scotlands-new-first-minister-who-is-humza-yousaf-scotlands-first-first-minister-from-minority-ethnic-background-4034447[/fn]
Yousaf became the first Scottish Asian and Muslim to be appointed as a minister to the Scottish Government in 2012 when then First Minister Alex Salmond made him the Minister for External Affairs and International Development. In 2018, Yousaf was appointed Cabinet Secretary for Justice. One of his flagship policies was the Hate Crime Bill which would streamline existing legislation as well as provide additional protections for persecuted minorities. After the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, Yousaf was re-elected and appointed as the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care. As Scotland bore the brunt of the Covid-19 pandemic and crumbling public infrastructure, Yousaf earned both praise and criticism for his handling of the situation. [fn]https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-global/humza-yousaf-8462737/[/fn]
Yousaf has been a strong proponent of universal welfare programmes funded by progressive taxation as well as of increase of public sector pay. He is considered to be pro-union. He is also a strong proponent of Scottish independence. On the SNP’s fight for independence, Yousaf said he believed in it “with every fibre” of his being.
Muslim community leaders and MPs have welcomed the election of Humza Yousaf as leader of the Scottish National Party and Scotland’s first minister. His win adds to successes in Muslim representation within the UK’s political establishment in recent years after Sadiq Khan’s election as London mayor in 2016 and re-election in 2021. Muslim candidates won a record of 18 Parliamentary seat in 2019 General election three more than in 2017 but slightly less than expected as Boris Johnson’s Conservative party scored a resounding 80-seat majority.Nonetheless, Muslims are still not proportionally represented in parliament. Only 3 per cent of the UK’s 650 MPs are Muslim, whilst the country’s Muslim population stands at around 5 per cent. [fn]https://www.arabnews.com/node/1598891/world[/fn]
Nonetheless, the political representation of Muslims in the UK is better than that of France and Germany. While France has the largest Muslim minority in proportion to the national population in Europe, in 2017 there was only eight members of parliament from Muslim background, which equals 2 per cent of the total 577 MPs. if the Muslim minority was to be represented in proportion to its population, 48-50 MPs should be elected. Similarly, the political representation of Muslims in German is less than one per cent. While there is approximately 5 million Muslims (i.e. 6.1 per cent of the total population), there are only 6 elected out of 736 MPs.[fn]https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/11/29/5-facts-about-the-muslim-population-in-europe/[/fn][fn]https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/muslim-minorities-under-represented-in-european-parliaments-study/2280810[/fn]
Muslim MPs in UK come from London, the South-East, the Midlands, North-West and North East, though none are in Wales or Northern Ireland. No less than 10 are Muslim women, including Apsana Begum, 29, in the safe Labour seat of Poplar and Limehouse, who is the first hijab-wearing MP. Out of the 65(up from 52 two years ago) MPs from an ethnic minority background, there are four Muslim MPs entering Parliament for the first time. [fn]https://muslimnews.co.uk/newspaper/top-stories/record-18-muslim-mps-elected-majority-women[/fn]
A breakdown of Prospective Parliamentary Candidates registered in the 2019 General Election found that the total number of Muslims standing went up to no less than 100, from 79 two years ago. They included 30 representing Labour, 21 standing for the Tories and 17 for the Liberal Democrats. Muslims elected included 14 for Labour (up from 12) and four Conservative (up from three) but still none for the Liberal Democrats following a bigger than expected fallback in support for the two main opposition parties. The figures show that Labour’s Faisal Rashid, first elected in 2017, was the only Muslim MP to lose his seat in Warrington South. Those winning for the first time were Labour, Tahir Ali (city councillor) in Birmingham Hall Green, Zarah Sultana, 26, in Coventry South, Apsana Begum and Conservative, Saqib Bhatti in Meriden.[fn]https://www.arabnews.com/node/2278391/world[/fn]
There are now 18 Muslims elected (8 per cent of Parliament), however, that figure needs to double to represent the country’s 4.8 per cent Muslim population.10 of the 18 elected Muslim MPs are women, the first three of whom were elected in 2010 (Shabana Mahmood, Rushanara Ali, Yasmin Qureshi all Labour). Labour’s Faisal Rashid (Warrington South) is the only Muslim MP to lose his seat. He was elected in 2017.
British Muslims in Parliament in 2023.
Afzal Khan
Mohammad Afzal Khan is a Pakistani-born British Labour Party politician serving as a Member of Parliament for Manchester Gorton since 2017.
Afzal was born in Pakistan in 1958 and moved to the UK in 1971 aged 11 when he was adopted out of poverty as a child. He was elected to Manchester City Council in 2000 and was the youngest, first British Pakistani and Muslim Lord Mayor of Manchester between 2005 and 2006. He was also MEP for Northwest England from 2014 to 2017.[fn]https://www.afzalkhan.org.uk/about/[/fn]
He has also served as Assistant Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain and is currently its Northwest representative. In 2008 Afzal was awarded a CBE for his work on community cohesion, inter-faith and local government. In March of 2018, he was awarded the Sitara-i-Quaid-i-Azam, Pakistan’s highest civilian honour, by President Mamnoon Hussain, recognising his contribution to the well-being of the people of Pakistan, particularly in the diaspora, and to Pakistani-British relations.[fn]https://policymogul.com/stakeholders/13347/afzal-khan[/fn]
Apsana Begum
Apsana Begum is a British labour party politician serving as the Member of Parliament for Poplar and Limehouse since 2019.
Born in 1990 in Tower Hamlets, she graduated from Queen Mary University of London. Her parents were originally from Bangladesh. Her Sylheti father, Manir Uddin Ahmed was also a Labour Party politician, the Tower Hamlets Community Housing Board Director (2002-2006) and the 2004 Mayor of Tower Hamlets. She worked as an admin officer for Tower Hamlets Council whilst the discredited former Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman, held office. In 2017, she became the first British Bangladeshi woman elected as Secretary of the Tower Hamlets Labour Party. Apsana Begum entered Parliament at the 2019 General Election at the safe Labour seat of Poplar and Limehouse, replacing Jim Fitzpatrick, who retired.[fn]https://policymogul.com/stakeholders/15637/apsana-begum[/fn][fn]https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/sep/28/labour-mp-apsana-begum-alleges-harassment-from-party[/fn]
Feryal Clark
Feryal Demirci Clark is a British Labour Party Politician who has served as a Member of Parliament for Enfield North since 2019.
Clark was born in Turkey to Alevi Kurdish parents with roots in Kürecik, Malatya Province. She studied Bioinformatics at the University of Exeter. She was elected as a Hackney Councillor in 2006. She was seventh on Labour’s London-wide list for the but was not elected. Feryal (Demirci) Clark entered Parliament at the 2019 General Election, replacing sitting MP Joan Ryan, who defected from Labour to the Independent Group for Change. In December 2021 she was appointed Shadow Minister for Health and Social Care, having been an opposition whip for seven months. Previously she was Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Shadow Communities Local Government Secretary and the Shadow Housing Secretary. [fn]https://www.feryalclark.co.uk/about [/fn][fn]https://policymogul.com/stakeholders/15624/feryal-clark[/fn]
Imran Hussain
Imran Hussain is a British Labour Party politician who has served as a Member of Parliament for Bradford East since 2015. He was re-elected to parliament in 2017 and 2019.
Born and raised in Bradford, he was the first person in his family to go to university, where he studied law, and is now a barrister. His grandfather came to the UK from a poor village in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. He was the first person in his family to go to university, where he studied law, and is now a barrister. He was elected to Bradford Council in 2013, going on to become Deputy Leader. In that role, he worked to set up MAGIC, a youth programme that helps those at risk of slipping into crime; protected domestic violence services from cuts; brought the state-of-the-art non-invasive post-mortem facilities to the city; protected community advice services and worked with the police commissioner to put more PCSOs on the street. He entered Parliament at the 2015 General Election and was appointed Shadow Employment Rights and Protections Minister in April 2020. Previously he was Shadow Minister for Justice for three years and, before that, was a spokesman for International Development[fn].https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2015-06-17b.344.0[/fn][fn]https://imranhussain.laboursites.org/about/ https://policymogul.com/stakeholders/14106/imran-hussain[/fn]
Khalid Mahmood
Khalid Mahmood is a British labour party politician serving as a member of parliament for Birmingham Perry Barr since 2001. He served on the Labour front bench as a shadow Foreign Office minister under leader Jeremy Corbyn, and a shadow Defence minister under leader Keir Starmer until his resignation in 2021. He is also the longest-serving Asian MP in the current Parliament.[fn]https://www.ukwhoswho.com/display/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-42395[/fn]
He was born in 1961, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. He studied at UCE Birmingham. He was a Birmingham City Councillor from 1990 to 1993. He became Britain’s first Muslim MP in 2001. Though he held the seat for Labour in the 2001 election, his share of the vote fell by 16.5%, much of which went to the Liberal Democrat candidate Jon Hunt, who ran on an ‘anti-sleaze’ ticket. Mahmood subsequently increased his share of the vote slightly in the 2005 election, though his majority fell by 805 votes. He was again elected in 2010. In January 2015, Mahmood was nominated for the Politician of the Year award at the British Muslim Awards. He was Shadow Minister for Defence, responsible for procurement, from 2020 to 2021, having been Shadow Minister for Europe for four years. He also served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Home Office minister Tony McNulty in 2005.[fn]https://policymogul.com/stakeholders/8801/mr-khalid-mahmood[/fn]
Mohammad Yasin
Mohammad Yasin is a British Labour Party politician serving as a Member of Parliament for Bedford since 2017. He served as a Bedford Borough Councillor from 2006 to 2019.
Yasin was born on 10 October 1971 in Mirpur, Pakistan. He obtained a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Degree College Mirpur. Yasin moved to Bedford, Bedfordshire in 1992. In 2006, he was elected as a councillor for Queen’s Park ward in Bedford Borough Council. Yasin was re-elected in 2009 and 2015. He entered Parliament at the 2017 General Election, unseating Conservative Richard Fuller with a majority of 789. In the 2019 general election, Yasin was re-elected as MP for Bedford. He defeated his closest Conservative challenger, Ryan Henson, by a margin of 145 votes (0.3%), making Bedford the most marginal Labour seat in the country.[fn]www.ukwhoswho.com/display/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-289523[/fn]
In March 2018, Yasin received a suspicious package containing an Islamophobic letter and sticky liquid. The substance was later found to be harmless. Similar packages were received by fellow Muslim Labour MPs Rushanara Ali, Afzal Khan and Rupa Huq. [fn]www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/mar/13/police-investigate-new-suspicious-package-sent-mp-rupa-huq-westminster[/fn]
Naz Shah
Naz Shah is a British Labour Party politician. She was elected at the 2015 general election as Member of Parliament(MP) for Bradford West, winning the seat from George Galloway of the Respect Party. She won re-election in 2017 and 2019. She has served in the Opposition frontbench since 2018, currently as Shadow Minister for Crime Reduction.
Naz Shah was born in Bradford. Her father left the family when she was six years old. At age 12, she was sent to Pakistan by her grandparents by her mother, Zoora Shah, to escape her mother’s abusive partner. She got married at the age of 15 in Pakistan. When she was 20, her mother was convicted of the murder of her partner, who had sexually and physically abused her for over a decade and served 7 years in prison. Prior to being elected to Parliament, Naz was chair of a mental health charity and has previously worked as a carer for disabled people, as an NHS Commissioner and as a director for a regional association supporting local councils.[fn]https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/11458810/Murderers-daughter-Naz-Shah-tells-why-she-is-standing-for-Parliament.html[/fn]
In April 2020 Naz was appointed Shadow Minister for Community Cohesion, working with the Shadow Housing, Communities and Local Government team headed up by Steve Reed. Previously she has served as Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities and served on the Home Affairs Select Committee.[fn]https://www.nazshahmp.org.uk/about-2/[/fn]
Nusrat Ghani
Nus Ghani is a British Conservative Party politician serving as a member of Parliament for Wealden since 2015.
She was born in Pakistan-administrated Kashmir on 1 September 1972. Her father served as a schoolmaster in Kashmir before the family migrated to the UK. Ghani was raised in Birmingham, England in a working-class background and educated at Bordesley Green Girls’ School. She was the first woman in her family to be formally educated. She attended state comprehensive school before studying at Birmingham City University (BA in Government and Politics) and Leeds University (MA in International Relations). Before beginning her career in politics, Nusrat was employed by the charities Age UK and Breakthrough Breast Cancer, and later for the BBC World Service.[fn]https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42733192[/fn]
She was previously Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy from 27 October 2022 to 7 February 2023, and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport from January 2018 to February 2020. In her role as a member of the BEIS Select Committee, she has led several enquires, including a probe into the use of Uyghur slave labour in UK supply chains.Nusrat was part of the UK delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly from 2020 to 2022 and the Rapporteur of the Science and Technology Committee. [fn]https://www.gov.uk/government/people/nusrat-ghani[/fn]
Nusrat Ghani was appointed Minister of State at the Department for Business and Trade and as the Minister of State responsible for the Investment Security Unit at the Cabinet Office on 7 February 2023. For her work in raising awareness of the plight of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, Nusrat was nominated for the NATO Women of Peace and Security Prize, finishing runner-up to the Honourable Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. [fn]https://www.nusghani.org.uk/news/nusrat-ghani-shortlisted-nato-women-peace-and-security-award-alongside-speaker-nancy-pelosi[/fn]
Rehman Chisti
Atta Ur Rehman Chisti is a Pakistani-born British Conservative Party politician who has been a member of Parliament for Gillingham and Rainham since 2010. from July to September 2022.
He was born in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administrated Kashmir on 4 October 1978. His father, Abdul Rehman Chishti, had been appointed as Federal Adviser on religious affairs to the Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir in 1976 by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the Prime Minister of Pakistan. His father left Pakistan in 1978 to take up a post as an Imam in the UK; soon after, Bhutto was overthrown by a military coup by General Zia-ul-Haq, who later executed Bhutto. Rehman moved to the UK when he was 6. He was educated at local schools in Medway and studied law at the University of Wales Aberystwyth.[fn]https://web.archive.org/web/20140819085252/http://centrallobby.politicshome.com/house-magazine/housemag-article/newsarticle/the-rebirth-of-rehman/[/fn]
After University, Rehman studied for his Barrister Vocational Course at the Inns of Court School of Law. Rehman was called to the Bar of England and Wales at Lincolns Inn in 2001. From 1999 to 2007, Rehman served as a Political Adviser to Benazir Bhutto. In 2006 Rehman was an Adviser on communities to then Chairman of the Conservative Party Francis Maude. He has been Chair of the Conservative Foreign and Commonwealth Council since 2016 and is an Executive Member of the British American Parliamentary Group. In 2018 he was the Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party covering faith and communities. Rehman was a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee from 2017 to 2019 and previously served on the Justice Select Committee and Joint Committee on Human Rights.[fn]https://www.gov.uk/government/people/rehman-chishti[/fn]
From 2017 to 2018, Rehman was the Prime Minister’s UK Trade Envoy to Pakistan. Other previous government appointments include Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Rt Hon Jeremy Wright QC MP, Attorney General from 2015 to 2016, and PPS to Nick Gibb MP, Minister of State for Education from 2014 to 2015. Rehman was the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief from September 2019 to September 2020. He was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office between 8 July 2022 and 8 September 2022. He was one of the 11 candidates for the post of UK Prime Minister in 2022. Rehman has received widespread national and international recognition for his work as an MP over the past 10 years.
He also received the Sitara-i-Quaid-i-Azam Award of Pakistan in October 2020, for his work advancing UK-Pakistan relations, including as the UK PM’s Trade Envoy to Pakistan.[fn]https://www.rehmanchishti.com/about-rehman-chishti[/fn]
Rose Ali Khan
Rosena Chantelle Allin-Khanis a British Labour Party politician serving as a member of Parliament from Tooting since the 2016 Tooting by-election. [fn]https://www.drrosena.co.uk/about-me.html[/fn]
She was born in Tooting. Her mother is Polish, and her father is originally from Pakistan. was educated at Trinity St Mary’s Primary School, Balham, followed by The Grey Coat Hospital. She studied medical biochemistry at Brunel University, funding her education through a series of part-time jobs and establishing a strong record. She was accepted to study medicine at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. After qualifying as a doctor, Allin-Khan worked at the Royal London and Homerton Hospitals. She also completed a Master’s degree in public health.[10] She spent more than 10 years working as a humanitarian doctor in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and she still does occasional shifts in the A&E department of her local hospital, St George’s in Tooting. was first elected as a Wandsworth Labour Councillor for Tooting Bec and Balham in 2014 where I proudly served as the Deputy Leader of the Labour Group. In 2016, she ran for and won the seat vacated by Sadiq Khan in 2016. She joined Keir Starmer’s front bench as Shadow Cabinet Minister for Mental Health in 2020[fn].https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/03/rosena-allin-khan-israel-children-hospital-human-rights[/fn][fn]https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/dr-rosen-allinkhan-on-why-she-s-a-knockout-choice-for-tooting-mp-a3253021.html[/fn]
Rupa Asha Haq
Rupa Asha Huq is a British Labour Party politician serving as a member of Parliament for Ealing Central and Acton since 2015.
She was born in Hammersmith, London and grew up on Brunswick Road, Ealing. Her parents moved to Britain in 1962 from East Pakistan( since 1971 Bangladesh). She attended Montpelier Primary School in Ealing. For her secondary education, she attended the independent girls’ schools Notting Hill and Ealing High School. She has also written a book, Beyond Subculture: Pop, Youth and Identity in a Post-Colonial World, which came out in 2006[fn].https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/8053988/Konnie-Huq-my-family-wanted-me-to-marry-a-Muslim.html[/fn]
Rupa stood as the Labour parliamentary candidate for Chesham and Amersham in the 2005 general election. In 1999, she completed a PhD at the University of East London. Her PhD also included being a post-graduate at Strasbourg II University in France, during which time she also worked at the European Parliament for the Labour Party, shadowing Labour MEP Carole Tongue. She entered Parliament in 2015 when she unseated Angie Bray (Conservative) with a majority of just 274, which she has consolidated since. She was a Labour spokesman on home affairs between 2016 and 2017. In 2022 she was suspended from the Labour Party when she described Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng as “superficially” black. She quickly issued an apology for her “ill-judged comment” and had the whip restored the following March after undertaking anti-racism and bias training.[fn]https://www.mylondon.news/news/local-news/blue-peter-stars-sister-new-5996362[/fn] [fn]https://policymogul.com/stakeholders/12750/dr-rupa-huq[/fn]
Rushanara Ali
Rushanara Ali is a British Labour Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow since 2010. Ali was the first British Bangladeshi elected to serve in the British Parliament.
She was born in Bangladesh in 1975. With her family, Ali emigrated to the East End of London at the age of seven, where she attended Mulberry School for Girls and Tower Hamlets College. She was the first in her family to go to university, Ali studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at St John’s College, Oxford. She entered Parliament at the 2010 General Election, taking the seat previously held by George Galloway. She was appointed as shadow minister for International Development by Ed Miliband in 2010 and was moved to the education portfolio in 2013 but returned to the back benches a year later. Prior to her election to Parliament, Ali served as Associate Director of the Young Foundation, a non-profit think tank that tackles structural inequality in Britain. Ali is the first person of Bangladeshi origin to win a seat in Westminster. In 2009, she was named by the Guardian as one of the most powerful Muslim women in Britain.[fn]https://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/discover/people/rushanara-ali/[/fn][fn]https://policymogul.com/stakeholders/9890/rushanara-ali[/fn]
Saqib Bhatti
Mohammad Saqib Bhatti is a British Conservative politician who has been a member of Parliament for Meriden since the 2019 general election. He has also been the Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party for Business since September 2022.[fn]https://www.saqibbhatti.org.uk/about-saqib-bhatti[/fn]
He was born in 1985 in Walsall, West Midlands. Both of his parents are of Pakistani Origin. His father moved to the UK in the 1960s. He was educated at King Edward VI School for Boys in Edgbaston before going to the London School of Economics to read Law. He was the youngest-ever President of the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce and is the former President of the Asian Business Chambers of Commerce. By profession, he is a chartered accountant based in Birmingham. He qualified at Deloitte and has been a director in his family’s accountancy firm since 2011.He was on the National Board for Vote Leave and campaigned to give ethnic minorities a voice on the Leave side of the debate and is a board member of the West Midlands Reserve Forces and Cadets Association. At 33 in 2018, he is the youngest person to take on the post in the chamber’s 205-year history. In 2019 he received an honorary doctorate from Aston University in Business Administration and has been a guest lecturer at Birmingham City University, Warwick University and University College Birmingham.[fn]https://www.saqibbhatti.org.uk/about-saqib-bhatti[/fn]
In September 2021 he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Health Secretary, but he resigned the following July, saying he did not have confidence in Prime Minister Boris Johnson. [fn]https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/meriden-mp-saqib-bhatti-quits-24409212[/fn]
Shabana Mahmood
Shabana Mahmood is a British Labour Party politician and serving as a Member of Parliament for Birmingham Ladywood since 2010.
Mahmood was born and brought up in Small Heath, Birmingham. Between 1981 and 1986 she lived with her family in Taif, Saudi Arabia, as her father relocated there to work as a civil engineer. When the family returned home to Birmingham, she was educated locally within Birmingham Ladywood constituency, at Small Heath School. She went on to study at the University of Oxford (Lincoln College) and graduated with a BA (Hons) degree in Law. During her time at Oxford, she was elected JCR President and she was awarded the Ashurst Morris Crisp Prize for Best Performance in the Lawyer’s Ethics finals examination by the University. In the 2010 general election, Mahmood was elected for Birmingham Ladywood with a majority of 10,105, succeeding Labour Minister Clare Short who stood down. Along with Rushanara Ali and Yasmin Qureshi, Mahmood became one of the UK’s first female Muslim MPs.[fn]https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/may/07/general-election-female-muslim-mps[/fn]
Shabana was promoted to the Shadow Home Office Team in 2010 as a Junior Minister and more recently became the Shadow Minister for Higher Education. She served as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 2015. She also served in the Shadow Cabinet of Keir Starmer as the Labour Party National Campaign Coordinator since 2021.[fn]https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/shabana-mahmood-the-woman-behind-labours-election-campaign-pk5vx3bn3[/fn]
Tahir Ali
Tahir Ali is a British Labour Party politician serving as a member of Parliament for Birmingham Hall Green since 2019.
He was born in Pakistan in 1971. He previously worked for Royal Mail after securing an apprenticeship at age 17. He also served as a political officer for the Communication Workers Union. Tahir is an active trade unionist and served as a political officer for the Communication Workers Union, before being elected to Parliament. Ali currently represents the Nechells ward on Birmingham City Council, having first joined in 1999. He was on the council’s cabinet from 2012 to 2016, with responsibilities including development, jobs, skills, transport, and the economy. Tahir Ali entered Parliament at the 2019 General Election at the safe Labour seat of Birmingham, Hall Green after sitting MP Roger Godsiff was deselected by the NEC for backing protesters in an LGBT teaching row. He is also a member of the All Party Parliamentary Groups in Bangladesh, Palestine, and Pakistan.[fn]https://www.politics.co.uk/reference/ali-tahir/https://policymogul.com/stakeholders/15689/tahir-ali-mp[/fn]
Tulip Rizwana Siddiq
Tulip Rizwana is a British Labour Party politician serving as a member of Parliament for Hampstead and Kilburn since 2015.
She was born in Moden in 1982. Siddiq is the daughter of former Dhaka University professor Shafique Ahmed Siddique and Sheikh Rehana who gained political asylum in the UK as a teenager. Her mother is the sister of Sheik Hasina, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh since 2009 and the daughter of the founding father and first President of Bangladesh Sheikh Muibur Rahman. Rizwana attended The Royal School, Hampstead, and Mill Hill School before completing her undergraduate degree in English Literature at University College London and then a master’s degree at King’s College London. In September 2011, she completed a second master’s degree in politics, Policy and Government. She entered Parliament at the 2015 General Election, inheriting the Hampstead and Kilburn seat left vacant when Glenda Jackson retired.[fn]https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/tulip-siddiq-a-heritage-in-bangadeshi-politics-a-future-in-british-8720884.html[/fn]
She was appointed Shadow Financial Secretary (City Minister) in October 2022, having spent a year as Shadow Economic Secretary. Previously she was Shadow Minister for Children and Early Years for 17 months. She had resigned three years earlier from the same position when she refused to support Labour’s backing for legislation paving the way for the UK’s departure from the EU[fn]https://policymogul.com/stakeholders/12769/tulip-siddiq[/fn]
Yasmin Qureshi
Yasmin Qureshi is a British Labour Party politician serving as a member of parliament for Bolton South East and has been an MP continuously since 2010.
Qureshi was born in Gujrat City, Pakistan, and moved to Britain when she was nine in 1972. Her father was an engineer, and the family lived in Watford. She attended what is now London South Bank University, and graduated with a BA (Hons) Law degree before studying for and sitting her examinations for the Bar at the Council of Legal Education. She gained a Master of Laws at University College London. In 2007, I was selected to be the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Bolton South East from an open shortlist. Yasmin was elected to Parliament in 2010. Since then, she has served as Shadow International Development Minister where she oversaw scrutiny of the UK Government’s agenda in South Asia, on Gender Equality and Good governance. She has also served as a Shadow Justice Minister overseeing the Government’s agenda on Prisons and Probation, and later Courts.[fn]https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/the-first-asian-woman-mp-6941181.html[/fn]
In addition to this, she has been leading a parliamentary campaign for the victims of a drug called Primodos as Chair of the APPG on Hormone Pregnancy Tests. Before entering Parliament at the 2010 General Election, Yasmin Qureshi worked for the United Nations Mission in Kosovo to help in rebuilding their judicial system and for the Crown Prosecution Service as a prosecutor. She was appointed to Labour’s front bench for the first time in October 2016 as Shadow Minister for Justice and was Shadow Minister for International Development from April 2020 to December 2021. In November 2022 she was appointed Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities. [fn]https://policymogul.com/stakeholders/10068/yasmin-qureshi-mp[/fn]
Zarah Sultana
Zarah Sultana is a British labour party Politician serving as a member of Parliament for Coventry South since 2019.
She was born in 1992 in Birmingham Zarah. Zarah’s grandfather moved from Kashmir and settled in Birmingham in the 1960s. She became the youngest-ever Pakistani-origin member of Parliament. She studied International Relations and Economics at the University of Birmingham. During her university years, she was also elected to the Executive Council of NUS (National Union of Students). She was elected MP for Coventry South at the 2019 General Election, holding the seat previously occupied by James Cunningham, who retired.[fn]https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/601112-for-the-first-time-ever-british-parliament-has-more-female-muslim-mps-than-male-muslim-members[/fn][fn]https://zarahsultana.com/about/[/fn]
Members of the Scottish Parliament:
Anas Sarwar
Anas Sarwar is a Scottish politician who has served as a member of the Scottish parliament for the Glasgow region since 2016. He has also served as leader of the Scottish Labour Party since 2021.
Anas was born in Glasgow in 1983. His father, Chaudhary Mohammad Sarwar who is Pakistani, and a former British politician moved to Scotland in 1976 from Pakistan. He built up a chain of cash and carry stores. Mohammad Sarwar. He served as the Scottish Labour Member of Parliament for Glasgow Central from 1997 to 2010 and retired from UK politics in 2010. He relinquished UK citizenship in July 2013 and became the Governor of Punjab.[fn]https://anassarwar.co.uk/about/[/fn]
Anas studied dentistry at the University of Glasgow and worked as a dentist in the NHS in Paisley for five years prior to becoming a parliamentarian. Anas was first elected as an MP for Glasgow Central in 2010 and was elected as deputy leader of Scottish Labour just one year later. In 2016 he was elected to the Scottish Parliament as MSP for Glasgow and re-elected in 2021[fn].https://www.ukwhoswho.com/display/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-33889[/fn]
He served in the Shadow Cabinet as Scottish Labour’s health and social care spokesperson and constitution spokesperson and was elected leader of the party by members and affiliates in 2021.[fn]https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/14/sarwar-glasgow-mp-pakistan-governor[/fn]
Anum Qaisar
Anum Qaisar is a Scottish National Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament for Airdrie and Shotts since 2021.
Qaisar was born to a Scottish Pakistani family, and raised in Motherwell, where her parents were shopkeepers. Her grandfather had emigrated from Pakistan to Manchester in the 1960s. She studied politics at the University of Stirling. Anum’s family were Labour supporters and she herself went on to become an active member of Scottish Labour and General Secretary of Muslim Friends of Labour. However, she had differing views on the future of our country and went against Labour Party policy by campaigning for Scottish Independence in the 2014 referendum. She decided to leave Labour and instead join the SNP, believing that they offered the best path to a fairer, more inclusive Scotland – one that could only be delivered with the full powers of an independent nation. entered Parliament in May 2021 in a by-election caused by the resignation of Neil Gray to run for the corresponding seat (which he subsequently won) in the Scottish Parliament election. [fn]https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19241627.i-might-get-hangry-still-campaigning-snp-candidate-anum-qaisar-javed-ramadan-racism-role-models[/fn][fn]https://www.anum.scot/about-anum[/fn]
Foysol Hussain Choudhary
Foysol Hussain Choudhary is a Scottish labour politician serving as a member of the Scottish Parliament for the Lothian region since May 2021.
He was born in East Pakistan ( Bangladesh since 1971) and moved to Edinburg in the 1980s. He studies at the University of Edinburgh before taking over the family business. He is the nephew of famous Bangladeshi-born British Businessman Wali Tasar Uddin. In 2004, Choudhury was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2004 New Year Honours for his services to the community. In 2006, he was awarded the Channel S Award for his outstanding role as a community worker and leader. He is Chairman of the Edinburgh and Lothians Regional Equality Council. He is one of the founding directors and the Vice Chair of the Edinburgh Mela. He is also Chairman of the Bangladesh Samity Edinburgh.[fn]https://web.archive.org/web/20170108164250/http://www.bbwhoswho.co.uk/images/Publication.pdfhttps://foysolchoudhary.co.uk/about/[/fn]
Kaukab Stewart
Kaukab Stewart is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician who has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament for Glasgow Kelvin since May 2021.
Stewart was born in Pakistan and moved with her family to Northampton, England when she was five years old, where she attended Northampton School for Girls. She then moved to Glasgow, Scotland, aged sixteen and attended Bellahouston Academy in Glasgow and Moray House School of Education in Edinburgh. Prior to her election, she worked as a primary school teacher for nearly 30 years, alongside pursuing a political career. Kaukab was selected as the SNP candidate for Glasgow Kelvin in November 2020 after many years of campaigning for the party in the constituency. On Saturday 08 May 2021 she was elected as the Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Glasgow Kelvin constituency, succeeding Sandra White who had represented the area with distinction for many years. Kaukab alongside Pam Gosal was the first woman of colour to be elected to the Scottish Parliament.[fn]https://kaukabstewart.scot/about/[/fn]
