Three British citizens of Bangladeshi origin were elected members of parliament in the United Kingdom general elections yesterday, all on Labour party tickets.
Rushanara Ali convincingly defended her Bethnal Green and Bow seat securing 32,387 votes while her nearest contender Conservative Matthew Smith won just 8,070.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s niece Tulip Siddiq ousted the Conservatives in the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency with 23,977 votes.
Rupa Huq took the Ealing Central and Acton seat with 22,002 votes, sliding past the Conservative candidate Angie Bray who secured 21,728 votes.
Rushanara Ali was elected member of parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow in May 2010.
She moved to the UK with her family when she was 7 years old.
After going up to Oxford and worked in parliament, in a research firm and in government before becoming a lawmaker.
She took her seat in parliament in 2010 after defeating George Galloway’s Respect Party.
She was appointed Shadow Minister for Education in 2013 and before that was appointed as Shadow Minister for International Development.
Rupa Huq is from Ealing, and was born at Queen Charlotte’s in Hammersmith in 1972.
Her parents came from Bangladesh in the 1960s. In 1991, she went up to study Social and Political Sciences and Law at Cambridge University.
After Cambridge, she earned a doctorate at the University of East London, researching youth culture. She has also worked as a DJ.
In 1998, she began teaching at Manchester University and in 2004 became a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Criminology at Kingston University.
Tulip Siddiq lives in West Hampstead with her husband Chris. Her parents were married in Kilburn forty years ago.
She was previously a local councillor and cabinet member for culture and communities in Camden council overseeing Camden’s engagement with the 2012 London Olympics, which saw the launch of three legacy schemes to encourage more physical activities.
She has previously worked on corporate social responsibility.