Photo : Collected
The Labour Party made a remarkable comeback, ending 14 years of Conservative Party rule in the UK parliamentary elections with a resounding victory. Winning 410 seats, they far exceeded the 326 needed to form a single-party government.
In the 2024 elections, a total of 4,515 candidates, including nominees from political parties and independent candidates, contested for 650 seats in the House of Commons. Among them, 34 candidates of Bangladeshi origin, including 9 women, participated in the election. Four women who won in the last election—Rushnara Ali, Tulip Siddiq, Rupa Huq, and Afsana Begum—were victorious again this time.
Roshnara Ali, the first British MP of Bangladeshi origin, has been elected MP for the fifth consecutive term from the Labour Party in the UK elections. However, this time she won by a small margin.
The 49-year-old Roshnara Ali was re-elected from the Bethnal Green and Stepney constituency by securing 15,896 votes. Her closest competitor, independent candidate Ajmal Masroor, who is also British Bangladeshi, garnered 14,207 votes. Masroor managed to consolidate the opposition votes, resulting in a surprisingly tight race.
Ali faced significant pressure in this Bengali-dominated seat, primarily due to the Palestinian issue and accusations of religious propaganda against her. Despite these challenges, she ultimately emerged victorious.
In the same election, Bangladeshi Liberal Democratic Party candidate Rabina Khan came third with 4,777 votes. The other two independent Bangladeshi candidates in the constituency, Sam Uddin and Md Sumon Ahmed, received 325 and 315 votes, respectively.
Bangabandhu's granddaughter and Sheikh Rehana's daughter, Labour Party candidate Tulip Siddiq, has won London's Hampstead, Kilburn, and Highgate seats for the fourth time in a row. She received 24,342 votes, while her nearest rival, Don Williams of the Conservative Party, secured only 8,462 votes. At 41, Tulip is seen by political observers as one of the most promising new-generation politicians within the Labour Party. In the 2015 election, she won the Labour Party's first non-safe seat in a closely contested race. She has continued to win this seat by significant margins, securing a victory with more than a 15,000-vote lead each time.
Dr. Rupa Haque also won London's Ealing Central and Acton seats for the fourth consecutive time, securing 22,340 votes on the Labour Party ticket. Her closest competitor, James Windsor-Clive of the Conservative Party, received 8,345 votes. The 52-year-old British-born sociologist was a teacher before entering politics. An artist and author, she most recently worked as a senior lecturer at Kingston University. Rupa Haque is the eldest of three daughters of Mohammad Haque and Roshan Ara Haque, who emigrated to Britain in the 1970s. Her father hails from Kuthipara in Pabna city.
Afsana Begum of the Labour Party won for the second time, receiving 18,535 votes from the populous Poplar and Limehouse constituency. She won by the largest margin among candidates of Bangladeshi origin. Afsana's nearest rival, Nathalie of the Green Party, got 5,975 votes. Freddie Downing of the Conservative Party received 4,738 votes, and independent candidate Ehteshamul Haque, Afsana's ex-husband, secured 4,554 votes.
Afsana Begum previously won the Labour nomination and election battle for the East London seat despite opposition from local Labour Party members of Bangladeshi descent. Reflecting on her roots, Afsana said, "I was born and raised in Shadwell, Tower Hamlets." Her father, Monir Uddin, originally from Jagannathpur, Sunamganj, also served as a councilor in Tower Hamlets.
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