LONDON: British-Pakistani lawyer Mehreen Malik is challenging Labour leader and prime ministerial candidate Sir Keir Starmer in the central London constituency for the July 4 election, aiming to prevent Sir Starmer from entering 10 Downing Street to lead the next government.
The Conservative Party has given the ticket to high-flying lawyer Malik to challenge former barrister Sir Starmer, who last won the same London seat, and is now trying to win it again as polls show Labour heading for a large majority to form the next government.
The key challenge to Starmer, however, comes from Lahore-born Mehreen Malik, the niece of former Senate Speaker Waseem Sajjad, the daughter of Shahid Malik, Pakistan’s former high commissioner to India, and the granddaughter of a former Pakistani Supreme Court judge who later became Pakistan’s chief election commissioner.
She said Geo news She has entered this race with the aim of beating Sir Keir in the Holborn and St Pancras constituency.
The British-Pakistani lawyer told this reporter: “I feel immensely proud to have been given this opportunity as a candidate for the Conservative Party. It is truly a party of aspiration and I am here today as a testament to that.
“It's a tough seat to contest. When I moved to London to train to be a barrister, the first place I lived was in this borough, in the London House graduate student residence in Mecklenburgh Square. I'm a Londoner. I know the local issues and I know I can tackle them. I can compete directly with Sir Keir. He was a barrister and I trained to be one and am now a solicitor. I have worked in a number of law firms in London and before that in Lahore, New York and New Delhi.”
The City lawyer said Starmer says he cares about the people in his constituency but appears to only pay lip service to it. She said: “As I campaign every day, knock on doors and talk to residents about local issues, I hear he is totally absent from his local constituency. I have worked on issues relating to the housing crisis, the cost of living crisis, crime and other important issues affecting Londoners.”
Malik's interest in politics began when he would hear his father and uncle, Waseem Sajjad, discussing politics at home during Friday family meals.
She said: “I grew up as my mother entered the difficult world of Pakistani politics. My father was also a Pakistani diplomat. In my house politics was everywhere. We used to talk about politics every Friday at family meals. And it was inspiring. From a very young age, that became part of my world and I learned the values of justice and public service.”
After arriving in London about 20 years ago, she decided to get involved in law and politics to “be a voice for young girls who see me doing this, so they know they can do it too” and “to inspire young girls to show them they can come to this wonderful country, be who they are and do what they want to do.”
Malik is the Pro Bono Director at a City law firm. Prior to joining the US firm in 2020, she was a Senior Associate at Magic Circle law firm Clifford Chance, where she spent 10 years of her career in the firm’s global capital markets practice.
Labour leader Starmer has held the Holborn and St Pancras seat since 2015, and in the most recent election in 2019, he won with almost 65% of the vote, after polling more than 36,600 votes.
Malik said: “You cannot take voters for granted, as Sir Keir does. He has used extremely problematic language against British Bangladeshis by saying that people from Bangladesh are not being expelled. This is both insulting and divisive. He has singled out an entire community. I don't think there is a place for this kind of language in our country.”
She said: “I want to stand up for Pakistanis and other minorities in this country. We have a proud heritage and we are also extremely proud to be British.”
Malik said the fact that she was elected to this seat also shows that “the Conservative Party wants to engage with Muslims and Pakistanis, whereas the Labour Party has alienated them. I always think there is more work to be done around representation and diversity and I want to continue to work on integration and inclusion initiatives.”
The lawyer and politician also volunteers for various charities and has been a school governor.
She is also a trustee of a charity working on female education in Pakistan. She said: “Women's rights in Pakistan and elsewhere are very important to me. Education is the foundation of everything.”
