Tahir Ali (born 15 October 1971) is a British

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

politician who has served as the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for

Birmingham Hall Green Birmingham Hall Green is a parliamentary constituency in the city of Birmingham, which has been represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Tahir Ali of the Labour Party. It has become in recent years a Labour sa ...

since

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Early life

Ali has previously worked for

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after securing an engineering apprenticeship at age 17. He is an active

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

ist and served as a political officer for the Communication Workers Union.

Political career

Local government

Ali represented the Nechells Ward on

Birmingham City Council Birmingham City Council is the local government body responsible for the governance of the City of Birmingham in England, which has been a metropolitan district since 1974. It is the most populated local council area in the United Kingdom (e ...

from 1999 and was last re-elected in 2018 to serve until 2022, when he did not seek re-election. He served as part of the council's cabinet from 2000 to 2003 and 2012 to 2016, (shadow cabinet 2004 to 2012) his responsibilities including local services, development, jobs, skills, transport and the economy. In 2012, he was the only ethnic minority member of the team.

Parliament campaign

He was selected as the Hall Green candidate after Hall Green Constituency Labour Party members overwhelmingly voted to open selections for their Parliamentary Candidate in October 2019. The snap general election called for 12 December meant that the candidate selection process was undertaken by the Labour Party's National Executive Committee. The campaign was marred by intimidation from former MP

Roger Godsiff Roger Duncan Godsiff (born 28 June 1946) is a British former politician who served as the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) from 1992 to 2019, for the seats of Birmingham Small Heath, Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath, and Birmingham Ha ...

's supporters, resulting in three police investigations, one arrest for malicious communications and police patrols outside polling stations. Nevertheless, Ali retained the seat with a sizeable majority and hoped to "bring communities together".

Member of Parliament

Ali endorsed

Rebecca Long-Bailey Rebecca Roseanne Long-Bailey (' Long; born 22 September 1979), is a British politician and former solicitor serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Salford and Eccles since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, Long-Bailey served in the Shadow ...

in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election and

Angela Rayner Angela Rayner (' Bowen; born 28 March 1980) is a British politician serving as Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office and Shadow Secretary of State for the Future of Work since 2021. She has been Shad ...

in the deputy leadership election. Ali has been a member of the European Scrutiny Committee since 2 March 2020. Ali has been critical of the government of

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. In March 2021, Ali expressed his "absolute support for, and solidarity with, the farmers protesting in India" and called for sanctions to be imposed on the government of India, citing the "abuse the human and civil rights not only of farmers, but of

Kashmiri people Kashmiris are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group speaking the Kashmiri language, living mostly, but not exclusively, in the Kashmir Valley of Jammu and Kashmir, India.(a) (subscription required) Quote: "Kashmir, region of the northwestern ...

through the military occupation of the region". Ali further said that "political opponents of Modi in India are at risk of arbitrary arrest, and the civil liberties of all Indians are being eroded by an extremist, rightwing government". On 24 February 2022, following the

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, Ali was one of 11 Labour MPs threatened with losing the party whip after they signed a statement by the

Stop the War Coalition The Stop the War Coalition (StWC), informally known simply as Stop the War, is a British group established on 21 September 2001, shortly after the September 11 attacks, to campaign against what it believes are unjust wars. The Coalition has c ...

which questioned the legitimacy of

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and accused the military alliance of "eastward expansion". All 11 MPs subsequently removed their signatures.

Lockdown controversy

In April 2020, Ali was given a formal warning by police after he broke government restrictions by attending a funeral with up to 100 mourners during the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. West Midlands Labour Party Police commissioner David Jamieson also publicly condemned Ali's conduct, stating that his actions were "totally irresponsible" and that he "is not serving his constituents by endangering their lives". Ali issued an apology stating that he only attended as an observer and would not be attending any other similar gatherings.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ali, Tahir Living people British Muslims Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 2019–present Place of birth missing (living people) Councillors in Birmingham, West Midlands Labour Party (UK) councillors 1971 births