Rupa Huq | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2024 | |
| Member of Parliament forEaling Central and Acton | |
| Assumed office 7 May 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Angie Bray |
| Majority | 13,995 (29.3%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Rupa Asha Huq (1972-04-02)2 April 1972 (age 53) Hammersmith, London, England |
| Political party | Labour |
| Relations | Konnie Huq (sister) Charlie Brooker (brother-in-law) |
| Children | 1 |
| Residence(s) | Ealing, London, England |
| Education | Notting Hill and Ealing High School |
| Alma mater | Newnham College, Cambridge (BA) University of East London (PhD) Marc Bloch University |
| Occupation | Writer, columnist, politician,senior lecturer, music DJ |
| Profession | Politician |
| Website | www |
| Academic background | |
| Thesis | Too much too young: British 1990s youth culture (1999) |
Rupa Asha Huq (born 2 April 1972) is a BritishLabour politician,columnist andacademic. She has been theMember of Parliament (MP) forEaling Central and Acton since2015.
Rupa Huq was born on 2 April 1972 inQueen Charlotte's Hospital,Hammersmith,[1] and grew up on Brunswick Road inEaling.[2] Huq's father, Muhammad Huq[3] and mother, Rowshan Ara Huq, moved to Britain in 1962 fromEast Pakistan.[4] Huq's father came from Maksedpur inPabna and her mother from Kuthipara in Pabna.[5] Huq's father was training to become anactuary forPrudential, but gave that up to open anIndian restaurant inSoho, London. After therecession of the early 1990s, the council did not renew the restaurant's lease so the business folded. He opened another restaurant inHarrow and later retired.[6]
Huq attended Montpelier Primary School in Ealing. In 1980, at the age of eight, Huq was featured in theBBC Schools programmeLook and Read when the programme visited the school.[1] She then attended the independent girls' schoolNotting Hill and Ealing High School.
In 1993, she graduated with anupper second in Political and Social Sciences and Law fromNewnham College, Cambridge, for a BA. In 1999, she completed a PhD incultural studies with a thesis on youth culture at theUniversity of East London, comparing young people inEast London and theAlsace region of France.[7][8] This included being a post-graduate atStrasbourg II University in France, during which time she also worked at theEuropean Parliament for theLabour Party,[9] shadowing LabourMEPCarole Tongue. In October 2017, Huq toldSky News that she had beensexually harassed by a male MEP at this time.[10][11][12]
In 1998, Huq moved toManchester.[11] From 1998 to 2004, she was a lecturer at theUniversity of Manchester,[13] during which time she held aLeverhulme Trust Fellowship.[13][14]
From September 2004 until 2015,[15] Huq was a senior lecturer in Sociology and Criminology atKingston University[8] in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.[14] She has also taught Media and Cultural Studies.[16]
Huq has contributed toTribune,The Guardian,New Statesman,Progress magazine[17] andThe Times Higher Education Supplement.[1] Huq's research specialism has chiefly been youth culture and pop music.[8] She has a particular interest inDavid Bowie.[18]
In 2006, her bookBeyond Subculture: youth, pop and identity in a post-colonial world[19] on these themes was published. It was subsequently one of five titles shortlisted for the 2007 British Sociological AssociationPhilip Abrams Memorial Prize.[9][14] Huq was a contributor to the 2011 bookWhat Next for Labour? Ideas for a new generation, published by Queensferry Publishing. In June 2013, her second bookMaking Sense of Suburbia through Popular Culture was published.[20][21] Also in 2013, her third bookOn the Edge: The Contested Cultures of English Suburbia After 7/7 was published.
Huq has appeared onChannel S andBangla TV as well asChannel 4 News andBBC News 24.[1] On radio, she has been on theToday programme onBBC Radio 4,BBC Radio 5 Live andBBC Asian Network.[1]
Huq says that she has been a part-time DJ, saying in 2004, "I first started DJing for a hospital radio station when I was about 17 and now I DJ in clubs and bars in Manchester".[11][22][23]
Huq was a researcher forTony Banks andPatricia Hewitt. In 2004, she stood as a candidate forLabour in theEuropean Parliament election inNorth West England, but failed to be elected.[9][24]
In 2005, she stood as the Labourparliamentary candidate inChesham and Amersham at the2005 general election.[25] She finished in third with 14% of the vote behind the incumbentConservative MPCheryl Gillan and theLiberal Democrat candidate.[26]
In 2008, she served on a UK governmentForeign and Commonwealth "Understanding Islam" delegation to Bangladesh.[15]
In 2010, Huq was one of three Labour candidates standing for a council seat in Walpole in the constituency of Ealing, but failed to be elected.[24]
In November 2013, Huq was chosen by Labour as theirprospective parliamentary candidate forEaling Central and Acton at the next general election.[16][27][28] In January 2015, she was one of 15 Labour candidates each given financial support of £10,000 byLord Matthew Oakeshott.[29] During the election campaign, Huq was manhandled by the former vice-chairman of the local Conservative branch, Karim Sacoor, who was caught on video repeatedly attempting to drag her away fromBoris Johnson, who was campaigning with her Conservative rival Angie Bray.[30][31][32][33][34]
At the2015 general election, Huq was elected as MP for Ealing Central and Acton with 43.2% of the vote and a majority of 274 votes.[35][36][37]
In October 2016, Huq was appointed as a member of the Shadow Home Affairs team in theLabour Party's frontbench in Parliament. She is Shadow Home Office Minister for Crime Prevention.[38] Huq led from the frontbench on the bill before the House of Commons to equalise Civil Partnerships to include heterosexual couples.[39]
In April 2017, theGreen Party decided not to contest her seat in the next general election, commenting, "By and large we quite like Rupa. She has made quite prominent statements onproportional representation andHeathrow, as well asclimate change andenvironmental issues in regards toBrexit."[40] In May 2017,Vince Cable commented how he gave Huq a lift home from a joint speaking engagement, saying, "We talked for a couple of hours, and it was very clear that on almost every issue our views were almost identical. And so I would find it difficult to vote against somebody like that, and I hope that our people around the country are discriminating and think and act in a constructive way."[41][42][43] At the snap2017 general election, Huq was re-elected as MP for Ealing Central and Acton with an increased vote share of 59.7% and an increased majority of 13,807 votes.[44][45][46][47]
At the2019 general election, Huq was again re-elected, with a decreased vote share of 51.3% and a decreased majority of 13,300 votes.[48]
Huq was appointed vice-chair of theAll-Party Parliamentary Music Group and All-Party Parliamentary onCrossrail. She chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on London, with specific reference to planning and the built environment.[15]
On 22 June 2020 Huq joined thePanel of Chairs.[49]
She has been a member of the CommonsCulture, Media and Sport Committee since March 2022.[50]
In August 2022, Huq was re-selected as the Labour candidate for Ealing Central and Acton at the2024 general election.[51]
In June 2015, she was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominateJeremy Corbyn as a candidate in theLabour leadership election,[52] although she later supportedYvette Cooper.[53][54]
She supportedOwen Smith in his unsuccessful attempt to replaceJeremy Corbyn in the2016 Labour Party leadership election.[55]
She nominatedKeir Starmer as a candidate in the2020 Labour leadership election.[56]
In April 2016, Huq defended suspended Labour MPNaz Shah during an interview on BBC'sToday programme by comparing "alleged anti-Semitic" posts aboutIsrael shared by Shah on social media to a photo Huq shared ofBoris Johnson on azip-wire next toBarack Obama. She also stressed the fact that Shah's comments were made before she became an MP and that some online comments should not be taken seriously. Subsequently, Huq was accused of "trivialising racism".[57][58] Huq later apologised, saying she was not "fully aware" of Shah's comments before defending her.[59]
In April 2016, Huq claimed that some areas of television had yet to move forward from the racially insensitive sitcoms of the 1970s. She specifically criticised the BBC comedyCitizen Khan's "Islamophobic" depiction of a "quite backward" family of Muslims. The BBC responded that "We've also had positive comments from members of the Muslim community for the show and for creatorAdil Ray who, like the family portrayed, is a British Pakistani Muslim. As with all sitcoms the characters are comic creations and not meant to be representative of the community as a whole".[60][61][62][63]
In March 2018, Huq received a suspicious package containing ananti-Islamic letter and sticky liquid. The substance was later found to be harmless. Similar packages were received by fellow Labour MPsMohammad Yasin,Rushanara Ali andAfzal Khan.[64][65]
In May 2018, Huq told colleagues inWestminster Hall[66] thatBAME MPs regularly have their access to the House of Commons estate questioned.[67] She said: "I have been stopped more times in this place since my election in 2015, than in 43 years outside." Furthermore, Huq has said that she and fellow Labour MPTulip Siddiq are mistaken for one another. Huq added: "I imagine most BME MPs have encountered it in some form or other."[66]
Huq joinedLabour Friends of Israel in 2016. She resigned in 2019 becauseJoan Ryan remained in charge after leaving Labour and because she disagreed with some of the positions adopted by the group. Shortly after resigning from Labour Friends of Israel, Huq was the subject of formal complaints to the Labour Party by two former employees for alleged anti-Semitic behaviour.[68] TheJewish Labour Movement called for her to have the party whip suspended in consequence.[69] The allegations were dismissed due to insufficient evidence.[68]
In September 2022, Huq was accused of making racist comments during a speech at a Labour Party fringe event running parallel to the party conference. Huq said of theChancellor of the ExchequerKwasi Kwarteng, "Superficially he is a black man… if you hear him on theToday Programme, you wouldn't know he is black". In response, figures within theConservative Party including its chairman demanded the whip be removed from Huq and her expulsion from the Labour Party.[70]
Labour Party Leader SirKeir Starmer called her comments "racist", andTory Party chairJake Berry called her remarks "racist," "vile," and "disgusting."[71] Labour'sDeputy LeaderAngela Rayner called on Huq to apologise, describing her comments as "unacceptable".[72]Sadiq Khan, the LabourMayor of London and a friend of Huq, also criticised her statement, saying "What it infers is that all black people speak a certain way and all black people are working class. Rupa is not racist but that comment was".[73]
Initially, Huq rejected suggestions that she apologise.[74] Later she said she had offered “sincere and heartfelt apologies,” and that her comments were “ill-judged”.[74] Huq was suspended from theLabour Party for her comments on 27 September.[75] Huq went on to tweet an apology, but her suspension still remained in place.[76] Huq regained the whip on 3 March 2023, in a statement she gave shortly after Huq re-iterated her apology and stated that she had undertaken and completed anti-racism and bias training.[77]
In May 2017, Huq said "I am an MP who is a resoluteRemainer ... I will continue to fight for the UK to stay in the EU and vote accordingly. For me this is respecting the will of the people in Ealing, Acton and Chiswick."[78]
In April 2018, while writing forBusiness Insider Huq said, Brexit is "not carved into concrete, untouchable and unchangeable" arguing that "If the cost ofBrexit reaches a point where the British people decide it's not worth it, then they're perfectly entitled to change their minds about whether it's the right path."[79]
In December 2018, she accused UK Prime MinisterTheresa May of having "a sort of premature parliamentaryejaculation – that has put the lie to the claim that she sticks to her guns"[80][81] over her decision to delay a parliamentary vote on the government's Brexit deal. May responded, "I think she will see that I am not capable of a parliamentary ejaculation",[80][82] which was followed by raucous laughter in the House of Commons.
In 2022, Huq opposed the construction of a 26-storey mixed-use building, which included 477 homes (half of which were affordable housing), near theEaling Broadway train station in London.[83][84] At an Ealing planning committee meeting, she said, "A 26-storey tower, out of all character with low-density Ealing, plonked there despite local opposition, sticking out like a sore thumb, marketed to international investors on our public land – really?"[85] Ahead of local elections, Huq said that people do not want to live in flats and that "the skyline will be ruined forever."[86] Subsequently, Ealing Council scrapped the plans for the building and opted for retrofitting the existing 6-storey building instead.[85]
In January 2018, Huq said that theA Level history syllabus, Britain 1930 to 1997 was biased against Labour because it omitted the1945–51 Labour government, ends just beforeTony Blair'sLabour government in 1997 and asks pupils to list Conservative strengths and Labour weaknesses.[87] In February, in a personal film for theDaily Politics series, Huq said it was "dangerous to deny that these thingsBlair–Brown administrations, or the post-war Labour government which brought in thewelfare state andNational Health Service ever happened" and she argued there was a pro-Conservative bias to what was being taught with a risk of "brainwashing our kids".[88]
Huq married in 2003 and has a son, born in 2004.[89][90][91] Her elder sister is an architect, and her younger sister is formerBlue Peter presenterKonnie Huq;[1] her brother-in-law is Konnie Huq's husband, the satirist and screenwriterCharlie Brooker.[92]
Her father died on 5 September 2014,[93] and her mother on 21 May 2017.[94]
Huq speaksEnglish,Bengali,French andHindi.[95]
| Year | Title | Publisher | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Beyond Subculture: Pop, Youth and Identity in a Postcolonial World | Bloomsbury Academic | ISBN 978-0415278157 |
| 2013 | Making Sense of Suburbia Through Popular Culture | Routledge | ISBN 978-1780932248 |
| On the Edge: The Contested Cultures of English Suburbia | Lawrence and Wishart | ISBN 978-1907103728 | |
| 2016 | Reading the Riot Act: Reflections on the 2011 urban disorders in England | Routledge | ISBN 978-1138648388 |
Media related toRupa Huq at Wikimedia Commons| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forEaling Central and Acton 2015–present | Incumbent |
