Shabana Mahmood has change into the primary ever Muslim girl in British historical past to function dwelling secretary.
After simply over a 12 months as justice secretary, which noticed her determine to launch some prisoners early to unencumber jail areas, she’s going to now be answerable for policing, immigration, and the safety providers.
The 44-year-old changed Yvette Cooper, 10 years after she helped run Cooper’s failed Labour management marketing campaign, and faces flag-waving anti-immigration protesters and the rising risk of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
Raised in Birmingham and Saudi Arabia
Shabana Mahmood was born in Birmingham to folks from the Pakistani-administered area of Azad Kashmir.
Quickly after they had been born, they moved her and her twin brother to the Saudi Arabian metropolis of Taif, the place her father labored as a civil engineer and the household would make common visits to spiritual websites in Mecca and Medina.
After seven years, they moved again to Birmingham and her father, nonetheless employed as a full-time engineer, purchased a nook store and have become chairman of the native Labour Celebration.
She attended an all-girls grammar faculty after which Oxford College to check legislation at Lincoln School, the place she was elected Junior Widespread Room president, with a vote from former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who was within the 12 months above her.
After college, she moved to London to coach as a lawyer, specialising in skilled indemnity for many of her 20s.
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On a go to to Solihull Mosque, West Midlands, in August 2024. Pic: PA
‘My religion is the centre level of my life’
On the age of 29 in 2010, she was elected MP for her dwelling constituency of Birmingham Ladywood, a protected Labour seat, with a majority of simply over 9%, which grew to 82.7% at its peak within the snap election of 2017.
Together with Rushanara Ali and Yasmin Qureshi, this made her one among Britain’s first feminine Muslim MPs.
In an interview with The Occasions, she mentioned: “My faith is the centre point of my life and it drives me to public service, it drives me in the way that I live my life and I see my life.”
She held a number of shadow cupboard positions beneath Ed Miliband’s management, together with shadow prisons and better training minister, and shadow monetary secretary to the treasury.
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Being sworn in as justice secretary in July 2024. Pic: PA
Usually described as ‘blue Labour’, Mahmood returned to the backbenches when Jeremy Corbyn took over as celebration chief in 2015, telling him as she refused a shadow cupboard place: “I’ll be miserable and I’ll make you miserable as well.”
She had chaired her now-predecessor Yvette Cooper’s failed marketing campaign to beat him to the management.
Throughout the Corbyn years, she was elected to the Parliamentary Labour Celebration’s Nationwide Govt Committee and as vice chairman of the celebration’s Nationwide Coverage Discussion board.
When Mr Corbyn was changed by Sir Keir Starmer, Ms Mahmood turned nationwide marketing campaign coordinator and was tasked with making ready Labour for the subsequent common election.
Throughout her two-and-a-half years in that job, she is credited with serving to Labour win the Batley and Spen by-election and serving to Sir Keir get better from Labour’s defeat in Hartlepool – the place the Conservatives received for the primary time ever in 2021.
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On a go to to HMP Bedford in July 2024. Pic: PA
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On the opening of HMP Millsike in March. Pic: PA
Early jail launch scheme and views on Gaza
Quickly after turning into justice secretary and lord chancellor, Mahmood commissioned a report into the crumbling jail property.
Carried out by one among her Conservative predecessors, David Gauke, it revealed they had been virtually full, and triggered a controversial determination to launch greater than 1,000 inmates early to ease stress on the system.
The Ministry of Justice had been compelled to apologise after it emerged 37 prisoners had been launched by mistake.
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Holding a taser at an occasion to launch a taser trial in a male jail in Oxfordshire in July. Pic: PA
She has additionally endorsed harder immigration legal guidelines, saying in August that overseas criminals will probably be deported after sentencing, and has been important of their use of human rights legal professionals, calling for reform of the European Conference on Human Rights in consequence.
Answering questions on Asian grooming gangs, she beforehand informed former Tory minister Michael Gove in The Spectator that there’s “still a moment of reckoning” and an “outstanding question of why so many looked the other way”.
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Shabana Mahmood shakes arms with US Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem on 8 September. Pic Reuters
She has additionally been vocal on Labour’s stance on Gaza, warning the prime minister that “British Muslims are feeling a very strong sense of pain” and that the federal government must rebuild their belief.
When she was final re-elected in 2024, she suffered a 42% drop in her majority, dealing with off an unbiased candidate whose marketing campaign centred round Palestinian rights.
Like her parliamentary neighbour, Labour MP Jess Phillips, she mentioned the election marketing campaign had been “sullied by harassment and intimidation”.
