Chi Onwurah | |||||||||||||||
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 Official portrait, 2024 | |||||||||||||||
| Chair of theScience, Innovation and Technology Select Committee[a] | |||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 11 September 2024 | |||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Greg Clark | ||||||||||||||
| Member of Parliament forNewcastle upon Tyne Central and West Newcastle upon Tyne Central (2010–2024) | |||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 6 May 2010 | |||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Jim Cousins | ||||||||||||||
| Majority | 11,060 (26.7%) | ||||||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||||||
| Born | (1965-04-12)12 April 1965 (age 59) Wallsend,Northumberland, England | ||||||||||||||
| Political party | Labour | ||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | |||||||||||||||
| Website | chionwurahmp | ||||||||||||||
Chinyelu Susan "Chi"Onwurah[1] (// ⓘ; born 12 April 1965) is a British politician who has served asMember of Parliament (MP) forNewcastle upon Tyne Central and West since 2024, and previously forNewcastle upon Tyne Central from 2010 to 2024, when the constituency was abolished.[2] She is a member of theLabour Party.
Onwurah was the shadow minister forIndustrial Strategy, Science and Innovation under Labour LeaderJeremy Corbyn from October 2016[3] until April 2020, when she was appointed shadow minister forScience, Research and Digital byKeir Starmer.[4]
Onwurah's mother was from Newcastle. Her father, fromNigeria, was working as adentist while he studied atNewcastle University Medical School when they met and married in the 1950s.[5]
Onwurah was born on 12 April 1965 inWallsend, then inNorthumberland.[6][7] While she was still in her infancy the family moved toAwka, Nigeria in 1965. Just two years later theBiafra War broke out, bringing famine with it, forcing her mother to bring the children back to Tyneside, while her father stayed there in the Biafran army.[5][8]
Onwurah attendedKenton School in Newcastle[9] and graduated fromImperial College London in 1987 with a degree inelectrical engineering.[10] She worked in hardware and software development, product management, market development and strategy for a variety of mainly private sector companies in a number of different countries – the UK, France, the United States, Nigeria and Denmark while studying for anMBA atManchester Business School.[11]
Prior to entering Parliament, Onwurah was Head of Telecoms Technology atOfcom,[12] with a focus on broadband provision.[11]
Before entering Parliament, Onwurah was active in theAnti-Apartheid Movement. She spent many years on its National Executive, and that of its successor organisation,ACTSA: Action for Southern Africa. She also joined the advisory board of theOpen University Business School.[citation needed]
Onwurah was elected as theMember of Parliament (MP) forNewcastle upon Tyne Central at the2010 general election with a majority of 7,466.[13] She succeeded the previous Labour MPJim Cousins, who had decided to step down after 23 years.[14][15] She described Parliament as a "culture shock" but also said that compared with her engineering background "parliament is the most diverse working environment I've ever been in, the most gender balanced".[16]
Onwurah supportedEd Miliband in the2010 Labour Party leadership election.[17] Miliband appointed Onwurah as a junior shadow minister forBusiness, Innovation and Skills on 10 October 2010.
In January 2013, Onwurah was given a new "wide-ranging role" as a Shadow Minister for theCabinet Office, focusing on "cyber security, social entrepreneurship and open government."[13][18][19] Departing from the post in September 2015, she was succeeded byLouise Haigh.[20]
In February 2014, Onwurah spoke in a parliamentary debate called at her initiative on the topic of gender-specific toy marketing. She also lent her support to the campaignLet Toys Be Toys. In her speech to theHouse of Commons, she said:
"Before entering Parliament, I spent two decades as a professional engineer, working across three continents. Regardless of where I was or the size of the company, it was always a predominantly male, or indeed all-male, environment, but it is only when I walk into a toy shop that I feel I am really experiencing gender segregation."[21]
She later toldKira Cochrane ofThe Guardian that she believes the limiting of children by gender stereotypes is a serious economic issue, with the proportion of female students on engineering degree courses having fallen from 12% to 8% in the thirty years since she had started studying for one herself. Referring to a shortage of engineers and the UK having "the lowest proportion in Europe of women who are professional engineers" she said "toys are so important and formative, and for me this is about the jobs of the future, about what happens in 10 or 15 years' time. We can't go on with a segregated society."[22]
Moral issues
Onwurah’s mother was a member of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, and she had assumed that when given the opportunity, she would vote in favour of voluntary assisted dying. But in November 2024, she wrote to constituents to say she would be opposingTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill allowing terminally ill adults to end their lives, saying she was concerned that the bill was "flawed" and there had been insufficient time for parliamentary scrutiny.[23]
In the2015 Labour Party leadership election, Onwurah announced her support forAndy Burnham, having originally nominatedJeremy Corbyn to "broaden the debate".[24] Onwurah is the only engineer in the post-2015 Parliamentary Labour Party.[25][needs update].
AfterJeremy Corbyn won theleadership election of the Labour party in September 2015, Onwurah was made a Shadow Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills, as well as a Shadow Minister for Culture, Media and Sport.[26]
In the January 2016 reshuffle, Onwurah's frontbench role for culture and the digital economy was briefly split between herself andThangam Debbonaire. According to Onwurah, Corbyn did not communicate this change to either MP directly or tell Debbonaire when he reversed his decision, leaving them in limbo as to their precise responsibilities. Moreover, he refused requests for clarification.[27] A spokesman for Corbyn's office, disputing the lack of "negotiation" in January, said "at no point was anyone sacked. We regret that Chi feels she was singled out, but this was clearly not the case. Chi Onwurah's comments relate to a discussion about the delineation of shadow cabinet roles last January, as is not uncommon in both shadow cabinets and cabinets."[28]
Onwurah noted that the confusion affected two of the ethnic minority, female MPs (out of a 5% total), and argued that employment law required private sector managers to be considerably more sensitive and responsive in handling comparable situations. She stated: "If this had been any of my previous employers in the public and private sectors, Jeremy might well have found himself before an industrial tribunal for constructive dismissal, probably with racial discrimination thrown in".[27] Onwurah later wrote that "I made no accusation of racism against Jeremy", after claims had been made of her "playing the race card".[29]
Onwurah backedOwen Smith in the2016 Labour leadership election, but remained a Labour frontbencher.[30] In August 2016, during the Labour leadership campaign she publicly supportedOwen Smith's calls for a second referendum on the UK's EU membership.[31]
Onwurah retained her seat at the2017 general election, increasing Labour's share of the vote to 65%. Newcastle Upon Tyne Central was the first constituency to declare a result at the general election that year.[32]
She was re-elected at the2019 general election, and again, Newcastle Upon Tyne Central was the first seat in the United Kingdom to be declared.[33] Her share of the vote fell to 57.6%, representing a majority of 12,278 votes with a swing of just under 4% to theConservative Party.
In the2024 general election, Onwurah's seat was abolished and she was elected for the revised seat ofNewcastle upon Tyne Central and West, which includes a majority of her previous seat in addition to the suburbs on the western outskirts of Newcastle. She won the seat with 45.6% of the vote, 11,060 votes ahead of her nearest opponent,Reform UK.
Onwurah supportsNewcastle United FC.[34]
In 2018, Onwurah was added to theComputer Weekly "Most Influential Women in UK IT" Hall of Fame alongsideHannah Dee, Sarah Wood andSherry Coutu.[35]
In 2020 she was made an Honorary Fellow of theBritish Science Association.[36]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forNewcastle upon Tyne Central 2010–2024 | Constituency abolished |
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forNewcastle upon Tyne Central and West 2024–present | Incumbent |
