Shabana Mahmood ( ur, شبانہ محمود; born 17 September 1980) is a British Labour Party politician and barrister serving 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 o ...

(MP) for

Birmingham Ladywood Birmingham Ladywood is a constituency of part of the city of Birmingham, represented in the House of Commons since 2010 by Shabana Mahmood of the Labour Party. Members of Parliament Clare Short, elected as a Labour MP from the 1983 gener ...

since 2010. Retrieved 7 December 2011 She has served in the Shadow Cabinet of Keir Starmer as the Labour Party National Campaign Coordinator since 2021. She also served as

Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury The Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury is the most junior member of the Shadow Cabinet, and is the deputy to the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury acts as the primary opposition to the equivalent G ...

in 2015.

Early life

Mahmood was born and brought up in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

. Her family roots are from Mirpur, in

Azad Kashmir Azad Jammu and Kashmir (; ), abbreviated as AJK and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir, is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entitySee: * * * and constituting the western portion of the larger K ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. Her father is a civil engineer and chair of the local Labour party. She spent five years living in

Ta'if Taif ( ar, , translit=aṭ-Ṭāʾif, lit=The circulated or encircled, ) is a city and governorate in the Makkan Region of Saudi Arabia. Located at an elevation of in the slopes of the Hijaz Mountains, which themselves are part of the Sarat M ...

after he relocated there. She attended Small Heath comprehensive school and

King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls is a selective grammar school in Kings Heath, Birmingham, for students aged 11 to 18 (Year 7 to Year 13). It is one of the most academically successful schools in the United Kingdom, currently ranked 10t ...

in Birmingham. Mahmood graduated from

Lincoln College, Oxford Lincoln College (formally, The College of the Blessed Mary and All Saints, Lincoln) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, situated on Turl Street in central Oxford. Lincoln was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, th ...

where she studied law and was the president of the

Junior Common Room A common room is a group into which students and the academic body are organised in some universities in the United Kingdom and Ireland—particularly collegiate universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, as well as the University of Bristol ...

. She is a qualified barrister, specialising in

professional indemnity In contract law, an indemnity is a contractual obligation of one party (the ''indemnitor'') to compensate the loss incurred by another party (the ''indemnitee'') due to the relevant acts of the indemnitor or any other party. The duty to indemni ...

Parliamentary career

In the 2010 general election, Mahmood was elected for

with a majority of 10,105, succeeding Labour minister

Clare Short Clare Short (born 15 February 1946) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for International Development under Prime Minister Tony Blair from 1997 to 2003. Short was the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Ladywood from 1983 ...

who stood down. Along with

Rushanara Ali Rushanara Ali ( bn, রুশনারা আলী; born 14 March 1975) is a British Labour Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bethnal Green and Bow since 2010. She served as a Shadow Minister for International D ...

and Yasmin Qureshi, Mahmood became one of the UK's first female

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

MPs. Mahmood served a number of front bench positions under

Ed Miliband Edward Samuel "Ed" Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero since 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster North since 2005. Miliba ...

's leadership, including Shadow Minister for Prisons, Shadow Minister for Higher Education, and

Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury In British politics, the Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury (or colloquially Shadow Financial Secretary) is a shadow ministerial position of the Official Opposition that acts as the primary opposition to the equivalent position Financial ...

. Following the 2015 general election, Mahmood was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as

. In September 2015, following

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialis ...

's election as Labour leader, Mahmood stepped down from the role, saying she "strongly disagreed" with him on the economy. In January 2016, Mahmood was elected to represent the

Parliamentary Labour Party In UK politics, the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) is the parliamentary group of the Labour Party in Parliament, i.e. Labour MPs as a collective body. Commentators on the British Constitution sometimes draw a distinction between the Labour ...

on Labour's

National Executive Committee National Executive Committee is the name of a leadership body in several organizations, mostly political parties: * National Executive Committee of the African National Congress, in South Africa * Australian Labor Party National Executive * Nationa ...

, and was re-elected in July 2016. In November 2016, Mahmood was elected one of the vice chairs of Labour's National Policy Forum. She supported

Owen Smith Owen Smith (born 2 May 1970) is a former Labour Party politician and subsequently a British lobbyist, who has been the UK government relations director for pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb since 2020. Smith was Member of Parliamen ...

in the failed attempt to replace

in the

2016 Labour Party (UK) leadership election The 2016 Labour Party leadership election was called when a challenge to Jeremy Corbyn as Leader of the Labour Party arose following criticism of his approach to the Remain campaign in the referendum on membership of the European Union and q ...

. In November 2016, Mahmood did not vote on a motion in Parliament for the UK to withdraw support for the

Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen Saudi may refer to: * Saudi Arabia * Saudis, people from Saudi Arabia * Saudi culture, the culture of Saudi Arabia * House of Saud The House of Saud ( ar, آل سُعُود, ʾĀl Suʿūd ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It i ...

. She was re-elected in the 2017 snap election, increasing her vote share to over 80%, one of the highest in the country; she retained her seat in the 2019 general election with a slight decrease to her substantial majority. After Labour's loss in the 2019 election, Mahmood was asked to commission a review launched by Labour Together of the party's election performance. She was joined by

Lucy Powell Lucy Maria Powell (born 10 October 1974) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport since 2021. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for ...

, Jo Platt and others. Consequently, she did not nominate any candidate for the 2020 Labour Party leadership election or deputy election. Mahmood has served on the Public Accounts Committee between September 2017 and April 2021. In the

May 2021 British shadow cabinet reshuffle Keir Starmer, Leader of the Opposition in the United Kingdom, carried out a reshuffle of his shadow cabinet on 9 May 2021. This followed disappointing results for the Labour Party, including historic defeat in the Hartlepool by-election a ...

, Mahmood returned to the Shadow Cabinet as Labour Party National Campaign Coordinator, replacing

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 Sha ...

in the role.

Electoral performance

Awards and nominations

In January 2014, Mahmood was nominated for the Politician of the Year award at the

British Muslim Awards The British Muslim Awards are an annual award ceremony that honours the success and achievements of British Muslim individuals, groups and businesses. It was established in 2013. Overview The British Muslim Awards was founded by Oceanic Consult ...

. In October 2015, she was named as one of the winners of the women's magazine

Marie Claire ''Marie Claire'' is a French international monthly magazine first published in France in 1937, followed by the United Kingdom in 1941. Since then various editions are published in many countries and languages. The feature editions focus on wo ...

's ''Women at the Top Awards''. In 2018, Mahmood was named as one of the ''Brummies Who Inspire'' in celebration of the 175th anniversary of

Birmingham City University , mottoeng = "Do what you are doing; attend to your business" , established = 1992—gained university status1971—City of Birmingham Polytechnic1843—Birmingham College of Art , type = Public , affiliation = ...

References

External links

Shabana Mahmood MP
''Official constituency website'' * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mahmood, Shabana 1980 births Living people Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford British politicians of Pakistani descent English Muslims English people of Pakistani descent Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies English people of Mirpuri descent Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People from Small Heath, Birmingham UK MPs 2010–2015 UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–present 21st-century British women politicians LGBT history in the United Kingdom 21st-century English women 21st-century English people