30 Facts About Zarah Sultana

Zarah Sultana was born on 31 October 1993 and is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament for Coventry South since the 2019 general election.

Zarah Sultana was a Labour Party MP until her suspension in July 2024 as one of seven Labour MPs who voted to scrap the two-child benefit cap.

Zarah Sultana's grandfather migrated from Thub in the Dadyal Tehsil of the Mirpur District of Azad Kashmir to Birmingham, England in the 1960s.

Zarah Sultana went on to study International Relations and Economics at the University of Birmingham.

Whilst at university, Zarah Sultana was elected to the National Executive Council of both Young Labour and the National Union of Students.

In 2018 Zarah Sultana was the Parliamentary Officer for the UK Based Muslim lobby group MEND.

Zarah Sultana was listed fifth of seven among the Labour candidates for the 2019 European Parliament elections in the West Midlands constituency, meaning that she would be elected if Labour received enough votes in the region to appoint five MEPs.

Zarah Sultana was not elected, as Labour won only one MEP in the constituency.

Zarah Sultana's campaign was backed by Unite the Union, Momentum, the Fire Brigades Union, the Communication Workers Union and the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers' Union.

Zarah Sultana was elected at the 2019 general election, with a majority of 401 votes.

Zarah Sultana apologised for the posts and stated that she no longer held those views and "wrote them out of frustration rather than any malice".

Zarah Sultana joined the left-wing Socialist Campaign Group shortly after being elected and in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election, nominated Rebecca Long-Bailey for leader and Richard Burgon for deputy leader.

In January 2020, Zarah Sultana was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Dan Carden, the Shadow Secretary of State for International Development.

Zarah Sultana was removed from this role by Keir Starmer when he became leader in April 2020.

In January 2021, Zarah Sultana called for prisoners to be prioritised for COVID-19 vaccinations, describing them as "a high risk setting for transmission" and as such, it would be a "humane approach to a completely disenfranchised population".

Zarah Sultana spoke about the abuse she receives as a Muslim and as a woman of colour, including death threats and being told to 'go back to her own country'.

Zarah Sultana was described as "one of the most left-wing new Labour MPs" who had "made a name for herself as an outspoken critic of the Government".

In September 2021, Zarah Sultana broke down in tears during a debate in Parliament recounting the "Islamophobic hate" she had been subject to since being elected.

In May 2021, alongside celebrities and other public figures, Zarah Sultana was a signatory to an open letter from Stylist magazine which called on the government to address what it described as an "epidemic of male violence" by funding an "ongoing, high-profile, expert-informed awareness campaign on men's violence against women and girls".

In September 2021, Zarah Sultana chaired the Fire Brigade Union's Climate Catastrophe: The Case for a Socialist Green New Deal fringe event at the Labour Party conference.

On 24 February 2022, following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Zarah Sultana was one of 11 Labour MPs threatened with losing the party whip after they signed a statement by the Stop the War Coalition which questioned the legitimacy of NATO and accused the alliance of "eastward expansion".

Zarah Sultana criticised an anonymous Labour source who described the 11 MPs as a "mouthpiece for the Kremlin", and said that she had complained to party chair Anneliese Dodds about party sources disseminating "dangerous and irresponsible messages".

Zarah Sultana delivered a speech in Parliament on the cost of living crisis in May 2022.

In December 2022, Zarah Sultana introduced a Ten Minute Rule bill to Parliament that would extend free school meals to all primary school pupils, titled the "Free School Meals for All Bill".

In December 2022, when over 2,000 firefighters and control staff attended a rally in Westminster to protest low pay, Zarah Sultana addressed the crowd alongside Jeremy Corbyn and Matt Wrack.

At the general election in 2024, Zarah Sultana was re-elected and increased her majority from 401 to over 10,000, receiving 20,361 votes.

Zarah Sultana was featured in a Vogue article about 13 female Labour MPs who were elected.

In September 2024, Zarah Sultana voted against the Labour government and in favour of a motion to block the proposed cut in winter fuel payment.

Also in 2022, a photograph of Zarah Sultana featured in the Creative Connections Coventry exhibition at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry, which celebrated cultural and political figures with connections to the city.

Zarah Sultana says that social media is a "really effective in reaching out to newer audiences, younger audiences and getting out political messages".