Shabana Mahmood

Shabana Mahmood (17 September 1980) is a British Labour Party politician and barrister, who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham, Ladywood since the May 2010 general election. Mahmood was born and raised in Birmingham and is the daughter of the Birmingham Labour Party's chairman. Her family roots are in Jhelum, Pakistan. She graduated from Lincoln College, Oxford, where she was president of the Junior Common Room. Mahmood, Rushanara Ali and Yasmin Qureshi, elected at the same time, are Britain's first female Muslim MPs. She supported Ed Miliband in the Labour leadership election. She became a Shadow Home Office Minister in 2010 and has been swiftly promoted to Shadow Minister of State for Higher Education.