Rushanara Ali

Rushanara Ali MP

Alumna and Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow

Biography

Rushanara Ali is currently the Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow for the Labour Party and has held this seat since the 2010 general election. As an MP, she has served as Shadow Minister for International Development, Shadow Minister for Education and Young People and, more recently, as UK trade envoy to Bangladesh. Prior to her election to Parliament, Ali served as Associate Director of the Young Foundation, a non-profit think tank that tackles structural inequality in Britain.

Ali is the first person of Bangladeshi origin to win a seat in Westminster. In 2009, she was named by the Guardian as one of the most powerful Muslim women in Britain. As part of her work with the Young Foundation, she has helped develop UpRising, an employability charity which has helped thousands of young people develop their campaigning and leadership skills. Ali has continued her work with youth organisations, recently co-founding One Million Mentors, a national online platform to recruit, train and deploy one million mentors into organisations working with young people.

Rushanara Ali read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at St John’s, matriculating in 1993.