UK polls: Tulip, Rushanara among four reelected

Four Bangladesh-origin candidates — Tulip Rizwana Siddiq, Rushanara Ali, Rupa Huq and Apsana Begum — have been elected as Labour Party lawmakers in the UK parliament.

The result was published on the official website of the British Parliament Friday morning.

Tulip, granddaughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, has won by a huge margin in the Hampstead and Highgate constituency in northwest London. According to a BBC report, Tulip got 23,432 votes while her nearest rival Don Williams of the Conservative and Unionist Party got just 8,462 votes.

This is the fourth consecutive win for Tulip.

Rushanara Ali, the first Bangladeshi-origin MP in the UK parliament, has been reelected from Bethnal Green and Stepney, bagging 34.1 per cent of the vote. Rushanara got a total of 15,896 votes, followed by Ajmal Masroor, an Independent candidate who received a total of 14,207 votes. She has won this seat for the fifth consecutive time since 2010.

Labour Party candidate Dr Rupa Huq has been re-elected as MP for Ealing Central and Acton with 46.8 per cent of the vote. Rupa Huq, first elected as MP in 2015, got 22,340 votes beating Conservative candidate James Windsor-Clive who got 8,345 votes. She has been elected as a British MP for the fourth consecutive time.

Apsana Begum won from Poplar and Lime House constituency by getting 18, 535 votes. She secured 43.1 per cent of the vote.

Bangladeshis account for less than 1 percent of the UK’s total population.

According to reports by local UK news outlets, Rushanara Ali, Tulip Siddiq, and Rupa Haque, all of whom have previously served as shadow ministers, have the chance to assume ministerial roles in the new cabinet.

Keir Starmer yesterday became Britain’s new prime minister after his centre-left opposition Labour Party swept to a landslide general election victory.

Rishi Sunak conceded defeat in the poll, which brings an end to 14 years of right-wing Conservative rule.