Rushanara Ali | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
রুশনারা আলী | |||||||||||||||
 Official portrait, 2019 | |||||||||||||||
| Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Homelessness and Democracy[a] | |||||||||||||||
| In office 9 July 2024 – 7 August 2025 | |||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Keir Starmer | ||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Lee Rowley (Building Safety) Felicity Buchan (Homelessness) | ||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Alison McGovern (Minister of State for Local Government and Homelessness) | ||||||||||||||
| Member of Parliament forBethnal Green and Stepney Bethnal Green and Bow (2010–2024) | |||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 6 May 2010 | |||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | George Galloway | ||||||||||||||
| Majority | 1,689 (3.5%) | ||||||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||||||
| Born | (1975-03-14)14 March 1975 (age 50) Bishwanath,Sylhet, Bangladesh | ||||||||||||||
| Nationality | British | ||||||||||||||
| Political party | Labour | ||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | St John's College, Oxford (BA) | ||||||||||||||
| Website | rushanaraali | ||||||||||||||
Rushanara Ali (Bengali:রুশনারা আলী,romanized: Ruśnara Ali;IPA:[ɹuʃnaɹa‿ali]; born 14 March 1975) is a British politician who has served as aMember of Parliament (MP) since 2010 and who served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Homelessness and Democracy from July 2024 to August 2025.[a] A member of theLabour Party, she was the firstBritish Bangladeshi elected to Parliament.
Ali was initially elected to representBethnal Green and Bow in 2010, and represented the constituency until its abolition in 2024. She currently represents theBethnal Green and Stepney constituency, having won it in the2024 general election.
Ali was born on 14 March 1975 inBishwanath,Sylhet District,Bangladesh.[1] With her family, Ali emigrated to theEast End of London at the age of seven, where she attendedMulberry School for Girls andTower Hamlets College. She grew up inTower Hamlets, and was the first in her family to go to university, readingPPE atSt John's College, Oxford.[2]
Ali began her career as a research assistant toMichael Young, working on a project which paved the way for the establishment ofTower Hamlets Summer University, offering independent learning programmes for young people aged 11–25. She helped to develop "Language Line", a national telephone interpreting service in over 100 languages. Between 1997 and 1999 she was parliamentary assistant toOona King, MP for Bethnal Green and Bow.[3]
Ali worked on human rights issues at theForeign Office from 2000 to 2001. Prior to this, she was a research fellow at theInstitute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) focussing on anti-discrimination issues from 1999 to 2002. From 2002 to 2005, she worked in the community cohesion unit at the Communities Directorate of theHome Office, leading a work programme to mobilise local and national agencies in the aftermath of the 2001 riots inBurnley,Bradford andOldham, to prevent further conflict and unrest, challenging central Government to provide appropriate support to these areas.[4]
Previously, Ali worked as associate director of theYoung Foundation inBethnal Green, athinktank focused onsocial innovation. She has also served as Chair ofTower Hamlets Summer University; a commissioner on the London Child Poverty Commission; board member ofTower Hamlets College; Trustee of thePaul Hamlyn Foundation; and member of theTate Britain Council.[5][6]
Ali has published articles on a variety of political issues in numerous national and local media includingThe Guardian,Prospect magazine andProgress magazine.[7][8][9][10] Ali has also appeared onQuestion Time Extra,BBC Radio 4'sWoman's Hour andThinking Allowed.[11][12]
In March 2009, Ali was listed byThe Guardian as one of the most powerful Muslim women in Britain.[13]
In April 2007, Ali was chosen as the Labour Party'sprospective Parliamentary candidate for Bethnal Green and Bow. InMay 2010, she was elected as a Member of Parliament with a majority of 11,574 votes.[14] She is the first person of Bangladeshi origin to have been elected to the House of Commons,[15] and along withShabana Mahmood andYasmin Qureshi, became one of the United Kingdom's first female Muslim MPs.[16][17]
In February 2013, Ali voted in favour of theSame Sex Marriage Bill.[18] This drew support from pro-LGBT activists such asPeter Tatchell, but condemnation from religious figures such as theimams of mosques inTooting andBradford.[18][19] She would later defend a constituent who alleged he was a victim ofhomophobichate crime after his neighbours sang songs at him with the words "queer", "fairy" and "fag", calling for the case to be reconsidered in a letter to theCrown Prosecution Service.[20]
In April 2013, Ali was appointed a Governor of the UK government-fundedWestminster Foundation for Democracy.[21]
Ali served as Shadow Minister of State for International Development from October 2010 to October 2013.[22] In the October 2013 Labour frontbench reshuffle, Ali was appointed Shadow Minister of State for Education.[23]
On 26 September 2014, she resigned from the Shadow Education team to abstain on theCoalition government's House of Commons motion permitting military action againstIslamic State in Iraq.[24]
Ali also told Miliband that she remained totally committed to his leadership and was looking forward to his becoming the prime minister in next eight months' time. In his return letter to Ali, Miliband praised her as 'someone with great ability and talent'. Regretting her departure from the frontbench team, the Labour leader added that he accepted the resignation with due respect to her decision.[25][26]
Ali retained her seat at the2015 general election, with a 61% share of the vote and her majority doubling to 24,317.[27] In June 2015, she was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominateJeremy Corbyn as a candidate in theLabour leadership election.[28] Ali announced she would stand in the2015 Labour Party deputy leadership election, but withdrew just before the nominations deadline.[29]
In April 2016, British Prime MinisterDavid Cameron appointed Ali as thePrime Ministerial Trade Envoy toBangladesh,[30][31] as part of cross-party trade envoy network.[32][33] She supportedOwen Smith in the failed attempt to replaceJeremy Corbyn in the2016 leadership Election, calling on Corbyn to "do the decent thing" and quit as Labour leader.[34][35]
Ali campaigned to remain in theEuropean Union in the2016 membership referendum and in 2017 voted against the triggering of Article 50.[36]
In June 2017, in thegeneral election, Ali retained her seat with an increased majority of 35,393.[37][38][39]
In March 2018, Ali received a suspicious package containing ananti-Islamic letter and sticky liquid.[40] The substance was later found to be harmless. Similar packages were received by fellow Labour MPsMohammad Yasin,Rupa Huq andAfzal Khan.[41][42]
In October 2018, Ali signed the 'MPs not border guards' pledge, committing to not report constituents to theHome Office for immigration enforcement.[43]
As of 2019, Ali is part of the executive committee of theBritish-American Project.[44] In December 2019, in thegeneral election, Ali retained her seat with an increased majority of 37,524.
In early 2020, Ali supportedKeir Starmer in the2020 Labour Party leadership election.[citation needed]
In March 2020, Ali was one of 76 Labour MPs to urge that the government grant recourse to public funds for all migrants in the UK regardless of their legal status.[45]
In March 2021, a 42-year-old man was sentenced after orchestrating an 18-month hate campaign against Ali which included death threats.[46]
In November 2022, as a serving MP, Ali received £10,000 for 32 hours of work to represent a privately funded "Commission of Inquiry" to investigate theKazakhstan Government and the detention of Zhanbolat Mamay.[47] In a press conference on 20 January 2023, Bindmans LLP, the project manager, refused to disclose the name of their client but revealed it was a Kazakhstan citizen or citizens.[48]
In theSeptember 2023 British shadow cabinet reshuffle, she was appointedShadow Minister for Investment and Small Business.[49]
During theGaza war, Ali faced significant criticism from some constituents for following the Labour Party whip and abstaining on the SNP’s ceasefire motion.[50] Ali had previously called for a humanitarian ceasefire and continued to call for a ceasefire into 2024.[51][52]
Ali is a member ofLabour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East.[53]
During the2024 general election, she saw her 37,000-majority reduced to 1,700, and thus only narrowly avoided losing her seat to independent candidateAjmal Masroor.[54] Death threats and voter intimidation left Ali needing police protection during her re-election campaign.[55]
Following Labour's victory in the 2024 general election, Ali was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Building Safety and Homelessness in theStarmer ministry.[56][57]
On 19 October 2024, Ali relinquished her portfolio of Building Safety after survivors of theGrenfell Tower fire called for her resignation due to Ali previously attending a conference sponsored bySaint-Gobain, one of the firms heavily criticised in theGrenfell Tower Inquiry,[58] when serving as Shadow Minister for Investment and Small Business. She retained her ministerial role in the department with responsibility for homelessness and rough sleeping, as well as taking on the role as Minister for Democracy.[59][60]
On 7 August 2025, she faced strong criticism after it had been reported that she evicted tenants from her property inBow whilst serving as the minister for homelessness, but a few weeks later raised rent prices after failing to resell the property. Ali's letting agencies also attempted to charge tenants for repainting and professional cleaning, contrary to theTenant Fees Act 2019.[61][62] Ali had pledged to ban landlords from relisting vacant properties at higher rates, prompting accusations of hypocrisy.[62] She resigned the same day.[58] In her resignation letter, Ali claimed there was no wrongdoing but stated she had become a "distraction" for the government.[63]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forBethnal Green and Bow 2010–2024 | Constituency abolished |
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forBethnal Green and Stepney 2024–present | Incumbent |
| International | |
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| People | |
| Other | |
