Another Bangladeshi-origin MP made UK shadow minister
Dhaka: After Tulip Rizwana Siddiq, another Bangladeshi-origin parliament member has been appointed to the shadow cabinet of UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Rabeya Rupa Asha Huq, who was elected in last year’s UK general elections from Ealing Central and Acton constituency, has been inducted into the Labour Party shadow cabinet as the Home Affairs Minister.
‘I am delighted to have been appointed to the Labour front bench as Shadow Home Affairs Minister. Lots of work to do to keep the pressure on the Tory government,’ Rupa Huq, as she is popularly known, said in her Facebook post.
Her appointment comes after a shadow cabinet shake-up by Jeremy Corbyn following his re-election as Labour leader.
Rupa is a senior lecturer at the sociology department of the Kingston University. Her ancestral home is Pabna.
She was elected from Ealing Central and Acton constituency by bagging 22,002 votes. With her victory, the Labour Party regained the Ealing Central and Acton constituency.
Earlier, Rushanara Ali, the first British lawmaker with roots in Bangladesh, performed the responsibility as the shadow minister of International Development and Education after being elected as an MP.
The debut of Rushanara Ali, who hails from Biswanath in Sylhet, in the House of Commons was made through the previous UK polls in 2010. The Oxford-educated Rushanara won those elections with a margin of around 12,000 votes.
With her victory, she entered the UK parliament as the first Bangladesh-origin MP. Rushanara retained her seat from East London’s Bethnal Green and Bow constituency with a majority of 24,317 votes.
For the first time in the history of Britain, 11 Bangladesh-origin candidates vied for seats in the House of Commons through this election. Seven candidates were nominated by the main opposition Labour Party, while three from Liberal Democrats and one from Conservative Party.
Of the 11, most public interest and media focus was on Tulip, Rushanara and Rupa, who were described as ‘three daughters’ of Bangladesh. Interestingly, the three became victorious in the tightest electoral race in Britain’s recent history.