About

Rushanara Ali is the Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Stepney.

She was first elected in May 2010 in the constituency of Bethnal Green and Bow, having defeated George Galloway’s Respect Party.

Rushanara is currently a member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee.

She has previously served as the Minister for Homelessness and Democracy at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

In opposition, she served as Shadow Minister for Investment and Small Business, Shadow Minister for Education and Young People and Shadow Minister for International Development.  

Rushanara has served on the Treasury Select Committee, the Communities and Local Government Committee and the Energy and Climate Change Committee.

She was also the UK government’s Trade Envoy to Bangladesh and Governor of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.

Before she was elected, Rushanara was Associate Director of the Young Foundation. She has also worked at the Home Office, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Institute for Public Policy Research. She worked as Assistant to Lord Young of Dartington and Assistant to Oona King MP.

Rushanara grew up in her constituency attending Mulberry school and Tower Hamlets College. She was the first in her family to go to university and studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University.