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Rushanara Ali is Britain’s first Bangladeshi-British MP. She has been Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Stepney (formerly Bethnal Green and Bow) since 2010. In August 2025, Rushanara Ali quit as Homelessness Minister after claims she had evicted people from a property she owned and raised the rent.
Rushanara Ali MP’s story
Rushanara Ali was born on March 14, 1975 in Bishwanath, Sylhet District, Bangladesh. Her Muslim family moved to the UK when she was aged seven and she grew up in the borough of Tower Hamlets in east London. Rushanara went to Mulberry School for Girls, a comprehensive school for girls aged 11 to 18 and then Tower Hamlets College, now New City College following a merger.
She was the first person in her family to go to university and studied Philosophy, Politics & Economics (PPE) at St John’s College, Oxford University.
Before becoming an MP, Rushanara worked in the public sector and civil service. She worked in the Communities Directorate for the Home Office following the 2001 riots and held roles at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, where she helped establish what became the Forced Marriage Unit. She also worked as a Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research from 1999 to 2002 focusing on anti-discrimination issues.
She also co-founded the Social Innovation Exchange which works to connect innovators and social entrepreneurs around the world to collaborate to tackle major social problems.
She was Associate Director at the Young Foundation, where she co-founded UpRising, a national leadership and employability charity aimed at young people, and One Million Mentors, a national mentoring initiative. She also worked as Assistant to Lord Young of Dartington and Assistant to Oona King MP.
Her advisory positions include Commissioner on the London Child Poverty Commission, a board member of Tower Hamlets College, a Trustee of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, a member of the Tate Britain Council and as a member of the Home Office Working Group on Preventing Extremism established after the 7/7 London bombings.
Rushanara Ali is a very private person and has never disclosed whether she has a partner or children.
Rushanara Ali’s Political Career
Rushanara was elected as MP for Bethnal Green and Bow in the general election on May 6, 2010, taking the seat from George Galloway, who held the seat since 2005. She received 21,784 votes (42.9%), with Lib Dem Ajmal Masroor receiving 10,210 votes (20.1%), Abjol Miah of George Galloway’s Respect Party getting 8,532 votes (16.8%) and Conservative Zakhir Khan receiving 7,071 votes (13.9%). In the 2015 election, she won 61.2% of the vote, 71.8% in 2017 and 72.7% in 2019. In the 2024 general election, this majority dropped, with now Independent MP Ajmal Masroor getting 14,207 votes (30.5%) and Rushanara having a narrower win with 15,896 votes (34.1%). The Green Party also increased their share of the vote for this constituency.
During her time in parliament, Rushanara has been Shadow Minister for International Development from 2010 to 2013, Shadow Minister for Education and Young People from 2013 to 2014. She is a member of the Treasury Select Committee and Energy & Climate Change Select Committee. In 2016, she was appointed UK Trade Envoy to Bangladesh, helping strengthen trade and diplomatic ties between the UK and Bangladesh. In July 2024, following Labour’s election victory, she was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, with responsibilities for homelessness and democracy. However, she quit in August 2025 following scrutiny over her own practices as a landlord.
Rushanara Ali MP’s Political Priorities
Rushanara Ali’s key focus areas include youth empowerment & mentoring. Drawing on her earlier civil society work, she has consistently emphasised opportunities for young people. Her co-founding of youth organisations and mentoring schemes shows long-standing commitment to this area. She is also inspired by her own migrant background and representation of a diverse constituency to be active on issues of integration, inclusion and tackling discrimination. Her work at the Home Office and earlier policy research underpins this. Her role as Trade Envoy to Bangladesh demonstrates her interest in strengthening UK-Bangladesh relations and international trade, especially for Bangladeshi diaspora communities. As a minister (and former shadow minister),she tackled housing safety, rough sleeping and democratic reform. On GOV.UK she is credited with announcements such as de-criminalising rough sleeping after 200 years.
Rushanara Ali MP: Controversy
In October 2024, Rushanara lost her Building Safety brief after criticism related to attendance at a conference tied to firms involved in the Grenfell Tower Fire cladding scandal. As mentioned, in August 2025, she resigned from her ministerial role amid scrutiny over her own practices as a landlord, specifically, a property she owns in east London was allegedly let at a lower rate, tenants moved out and it was relisted at a higher rent shortly afterwards.
The i Paper reported that Ali, while serving as the UK minister responsible for homelessness, owned a property in east London which she and her agents told four tenants was being sold. Shortly after the tenants left, the same house was relisted for rent at about £3,300 a month, then advertised within weeks at roughly £4,000 a month, a £700 increase. Because she had publicly pledged to prevent exploitative rent increases, critics called this behaviour “hypocrisy”.
In her resignation letter to the Prime Minister, Ali said: “at all times I have followed all relevant legal requirements. I believe I took my responsibilities and duties seriously, and the facts demonstrate this.” She added that “continuing in my role will be a distraction from the ambitious work of this government.”
Rusharana Ali: Latest News
Rushanara Ali updates people via her website and social media what she has been up to. In September, she reported attending the Palestinian Statehood Ceremony. She said the Labour government recognising the state of Palestine was “a huge and historic moment, which so many of us have long campaigned for”. She voted against the Assisted Dying Bill (Terminally Ill Adults Bill).
