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Dr Rupa Huq becomes the second Bengali to enter UK parliament

12Ansar Ahmed Ullah 

 

Dr Rupa Huq has become the second Bengali to enter the Houses of Commons by winning  Ealing Central and Acton seat against present sitting MP Angie Bray of the ruling Conservative Party. Labour’s Rupa Huq fought a marginal seat ousting the Conservatives by

just 274 votes. Rupa Huq received 22,002 votes and her rival Angie Bray got 21,728. The voting turnout for Ealing Central & Acton was 71.5%, up from 67.5% in 2010. Rupa Huq was born in London’s Hammersmith area in 1972. Both her parents came to the

UK from Bangladesh in the 1960s. Her mother worked for British Telecom and her father for

the Prudential. In 1991 Rupa Huq began her studies into Social and Political Sciences and Law at Cambridge University. She joined the Labour Party, working on a successful campaign to win Cambridge for Labour in 1992. That’s when her passion for people and politics grew.

After Cambridge she earned her doctorate at the University of East London. She researched youth culture, and how young people use pop music to express themselves. She has published three books in this field as well as writing articles for the Guardian. She did some of her

research in northern France, and kept in touch with politics by working at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

In 1998 Rupa Huq started teaching at Manchester University, and in 2004 became a Senior

Lecturer in Sociology and Criminology at Kingston University. In 2013 she was selected as Labour Party candidate for Ealing Central and Acton.