LONDON: Birmingham MP Shabana Mahmood, who is of British-Pakistani and Kashmiri descent, has been appointed Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice in the new Labour government, Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office confirmed on Friday.
Mahmood was the fourth former shadow minister to take over Downing Street following Starmer's appointment as prime minister. She will be the first practising Muslim and only the second woman to take up the former role of chancellor.
His parents hail from Mirpur, Azad Kashmir. He is fluent in Urdu and Mirpuri.
Mahmood was born and raised in Birmingham and joined the Bar at Grays Inn after studying on a scholarship. In practice, she specialised in professional liability cases. She was appointed Shadow Justice Secretary in September last year.
Her previous shadow ministerial roles included stints in Home Affairs, Business and as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
Mahmood spoke emotionally as she was declared the winner on Friday morning. She thanked her mother, father and supporters for electing her again, but took aim at those who attacked her during the campaign.
She said: “Much will be written about this campaign and so it should be. This was a campaign of harassment and intimidation, against me, my family and my supporters who knocked on doors. Bravely, they carried on. I want to give my deepest thanks to all those who carried on. This was not just an attack on this. It was an attack on democracy. British politics must wake up soon to what happened in this election in Ladywood and in a handful of seats across the country. While it will always be acceptable to disagree passionately, it is never acceptable to bully and threaten. We must never accept being terrorised by anyone. We must never accept physical threats and intimidation.”
Mahmood said this in reference to the similar intimidation faced by Naz Shah from his opponents.
An emotional Mahmood said she wanted to share what is “very important to me and my family.” “It is never acceptable to deny someone their faith, to call them an infidel. I know what a Muslim looks like, a Muslim looks like me. I know what Muslim values are. Muslim values are mine and they are British values as well: decency, respect, kindness,” she said.
Mahmood then challenged her opponents who subjected her to the hate campaign, saying: “They thought they could intimidate us, but they couldn’t. They thought they could silence us, but they couldn’t. They thought they could defeat us, but they couldn’t. We campaigned for change in our constituency and nationally, for change. I want to thank the people of Ladywood for rejecting the politics of division and embracing a politics of hope.”
Responding to jeers from her opponents, she added: “No one has ever silenced me. I know we have bridges to rebuild. I am grateful to the community. We must deliver the change we have promised – change after 14 years of Conservative misrule which has left a devastating mark on this constituency and so many others.”
He acknowledged local problems of poverty and unemployment etc but said he could do nothing because there was a Tory government in the centre. He said it took Starmer almost two years to turn the Labour Party around (away from the party it became under Jeremy Corbyn) and now “we have the chance to serve the country again. The road will be hard and long.”
In an interview with Geo News last week, Shabana Mahmoodhas shared that in her 14 years of public life as a Muslim woman of Pakistani Kashmiri origin in the UK, she has faced bullying and harassment, and stressed that being a Muslim woman in public life is a challenge.
She told Geo News that she had not previously spoken about such harassment because she did not want people “especially our sisters, daughters, to perceive politics negatively and be deterred by the challenges of bullying and harassment.”
She stressed that in a free democracy, everyone should participate in elections without fear of harassment or abuse. Expelling women from the democratic process through intimidation is unacceptable, she said, stressing the importance of candidates standing freely for election and voters casting their ballots without any form of coercion.
In an interview with Geo News, he spoke of the deep pride and honour he feels in representing a minority faith and ethnicity in public life, looking forward to a future where these challenges can be openly addressed.
Mahmood has served as Labour's campaign manager during by-elections over the past two years and has been a member of Labour's National Executive Committee since 2016, playing a key role in preparing the party's manifesto for the July 4 election.
The Oxford graduate was first elected as a Labour MP in 2010 and has been gaining ground ever since. She won the seat with 15,558 votes. Her main opponent, who stood mainly on the Gaza issue, got 12,137 votes. She had won the last election with a majority of 28,000 votes.
Mahmood is expected to be sworn in as Lord Chancellor at the Royal Courts of Justice before the opening of Parliament on 17 July.
