Four Bangladeshi-origin candidates won in the UK general election 2019 from their respective constituencies with Tulip Siddiq, Rushanara Ali and Rupa Huq being re-elected and Apsana Begum for the first time.
Tulip Siddiq
Tulip Siddiq, Sheikh Rehana’s daughter and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s niece, retained her Hampstead and Kilburn seat on Friday with a margin of 14,188 votes bagging 28,080 against her Conservative rival Johnny Luk. In the previous 2017 polls, she was, for the second time, elected to represent the constituency after securing 34,464 votes. Her main rival at the time was Conservative candidate Claire-Louise, who bagged 18,904 votes.
Born in Mitcham, London in 1982, Siddiq holds two Master’s degrees - one in English literature, and another in Politics, Policy and Government - from King’s College London. She is a former councillor in Regent’s Park and Cabinet Member for Culture and Communities in Camden Council, according to Wikipedia.
Siddiq, who became the first Bangali woman councillor in Camden Council in May 2010, first contested and won in the parliamentary polls in 2015.
Rushanara Ali
Rushanara Ali, the first British lawmaker with roots in Bangladesh, was re-elected as the MP of Bethnal Green and Bow with a majority of 44,052 votes. Ali had retained her seat in 2017 from East London’s Bethnal Green and Bow constituency with a majority of 42,969 votes.
Hailing from Biswanath in Sylhet, Ali was appointed British prime minister’s trade envoy for Bangladesh after the 2015 elections.
Earlier, the Oxford-educated Ali performed the responsibility as the “shadow minister” of International Development and Education after being elected as an MP for the first time in 2010.
Rupa Haq
Rupa Haq has retained the Ealing Central and Acton seat for Labour. Haq bagged 28,132 votes against her Conservative rival Julian Gallant's 14,832 votes.
Haq was also elected in the last UK general elections from Ealing Central and Acton constituency after securing 22,002 votes.
She is a senior lecturer at the sociology department of Kingston University. Her ancestral home is in Pabna.
Apsana Begum
First-time candidate Apsana Begum won in Poplar and Limehouse after securing 38,660 votes.