Rushanara Ali has won the hotly fought battle to become the Labour candidate for Bethnal Green & Bow. She will fight to regain the seat lost to George Galloway in May 2005 and is now in line to become Britain’s first Bangladeshi MP as
She’s a local, who grew up in Bethnal Green & Bow after her family arrived from Bangladesh at the age of seven. She is currently an associate director of the charity the Young Foundation and previously worked at the Communities Directorate of the Home Office. She is also a former parliamentary research assistant to Oona King who lost the seat to George Galloway.
Rushanara Ali said: “I am proud and delighted to be chosen by local Labour party members to stand for election here in Bethnal Green & Bow. I would like to thank everyone in the Labour Party and across the community for supporting me and for all their hard work.
“The East End is a very special place with extraordinary people and enormous amounts of talent. I look forward to working with everyone in this community over the coming months and years to win back Bethnal Green & Bow.”
She’ll now take on the Respect candidate whoever that might be.
Some people aren’t going to be too happy with her selection.
According to reports, some party members say she is far too close to her old boss King and also former Tower Hamlets council chief Michael Keith. Bloggers have also said she lacks the common touch, is inexperienced and ‘boasts’ too much about her Oxbridge background.
To win the seat she beat off competition from Kingston University academic Dr Huq, who is the sister of ‘Blue Peter’ presenter Konnie who has been praised for being closely involved with youth culture in the area. A shame she could maybe have got Blue Peter badges for all.
Other candidates included former Tower Hamlets council leaders John Biggs, and Cllrs Helal Abbas and Shiria Khatun.
