1. Rushanara Ali is a British politician who has served as a Member of Parliament since 2010 and as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Homelessness and Rough Sleeping since July 2024.
29 Facts About Rushanara Ali
1. 2.
Rushanara Ali currently represents the Bethnal Green and Stepney constituency, having won it in the 2024 general election.
3.
Rushanara Ali was born on 14 March 1975 in Bishwanath, Sylhet District, Bangladesh.
4.
Rushanara Ali grew up in Tower Hamlets where her father was a manual labourer.
5.
The first in her family to go to university, Rushanara Ali studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at St John's College, Oxford.
6.
Rushanara Ali helped to develop "Language Line", a national telephone interpreting service in over 100 languages.
7.
Rushanara Ali worked on human rights issues at the Foreign Office from 2000 to 2001.
8.
Previously, Rushanara Ali worked as associate director of the Young Foundation in Bethnal Green, a thinktank focused on social innovation.
9.
Rushanara Ali has served as Chair of Tower Hamlets Summer University; a commissioner on the London Child Poverty Commission; board member of Tower Hamlets College; Trustee of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation; and member of the Tate Britain Council.
10.
Rushanara Ali has published articles on a variety of political issues in numerous national and local media including The Guardian, Prospect magazine and Progress magazine.
11.
Rushanara Ali has appeared on Question Time Extra, BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour and Thinking Allowed.
12.
In March 2009, Rushanara Ali was listed by The Guardian as one of the most powerful Muslim women in Britain.
13.
Rushanara Ali is the first person of Bangladeshi origin to have been elected to the House of Commons, and along with Shabana Mahmood and Yasmin Qureshi, became one of the United Kingdom's first female Muslim MPs.
14.
Rushanara Ali served as Shadow Minister of State for International Development from October 2010 to October 2013.
15.
Rushanara Ali 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.
16.
Rushanara Ali supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Jeremy Corbyn in the 2016 leadership Election, calling on Corbyn to "do the decent thing" and quit as Labour leader.
17.
Rushanara Ali campaigned to remain in the European Union in the 2016 membership referendum and in 2017 voted against the triggering of Article 50.
18.
In June 2017, in the general election, Rushanara Ali retained her seat with an increased majority of 35,393.
19.
In March 2018, Rushanara Ali received a suspicious package containing an anti-Islamic letter and sticky liquid.
20.
In October 2018, Rushanara Ali signed the 'MPs not border guards' pledge, committing to not report constituents to the Home Office for immigration enforcement.
21.
In December 2019, in the general election, Rushanara Ali retained her seat with an increased majority of 37,524.
22.
In early 2020, Rushanara Ali supported Keir Starmer in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election.
23.
In March 2020, Rushanara 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.
24.
In March 2021, a 42-year-old man was sentenced after orchestrating an 18-month hate campaign against Rushanara Ali which included death threats.
25.
Rushanara Ali had previously called for a humanitarian ceasefire and continued to call for a ceasefire into 2024.
26.
Rushanara Ali is a member of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East.
27.
Death threats and voter intimidation left Rushanara Ali needing police protection during her re-election campaign.
28.
On 19 October 2024, Rushanara Ali relinquished her portfolio of Building Safety after survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire called for her resignation due to Rushanara Ali previously attending a conference sponsored by Saint-Gobain when serving as Shadow Minister for Investment and Small Business.
29.
Rushanara Ali 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.