Tulip Siddiq

Politician

Birthday September 16, 1982

Birth Sign Virgo

Birthplace St Helier, Sutton, London, England

Age 41 years old

Nationality London, England

Height 151cm

#26411 Most Popular

1975

In 1975, a faction of Bangladesh Army soldiers stormed Siddiq's mother's home in Bangladesh and assassinated Siddiq's grandfather, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, alongside his three sons and 16 other members of his family in a military coup.

Siddiq's mother and aunt survived as they were visiting West Germany.

At the age of 16, Siddiq joined the Labour Party.

Her father suffered a stroke, which left him disabled and unable to speak for five years.

She has cited the National Health Service and the care her disabled father received as the reason why she joined.

She identified former Labour minister Barbara Castle as her political heroine, and has described her mother and maternal aunt as "two very strong feminists".

She has worked for Amnesty International, the Greater London Authority, at Philip Gould Associates, the political consultancy firm run by New Labour strategist Philip Gould, Save the Children, and Brunswick, where she worked on corporate social responsibility initiatives for major British manufacturers, as well as for MPs Oona King, Sadiq Khan and Harry Cohen.

Siddiq worked on Ed Miliband's campaign to be leader of the Labour Party, and as a special advisor to Tessa Jowell.

1980

The two met when Shafique Siddique was studying for a PhD, and married in Kilburn in 1980.

Tulip Siddiq was born in St Helier Hospital in St Helier, London, and has an elder brother, Radwan "Bobby" Mujib, and a younger sister, Azmina Siddiq.

When she was 15, the family moved to Hampstead.

She was raised a Muslim and has said that her "family embraced multicultural Britain".

In the heart of North London's Jewish community, she attended seder with neighbours and went to Limmud.

As a child, she met Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton and Mother Teresa, and her family was invited to the White House.

She attended Scholastica, The Royal School, Hampstead, and Mill Hill School before completing her undergraduate degree in English Literature at University College London and then a master's degree at King's College London.

1982

Tulip Rizwana Siddiq (টিউলিপ রেজওয়ানা সিদ্দীক; born 16 September 1982) is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hampstead and Kilburn since 2015.

2006

In a 2006 by-election, Siddiq stood unsuccessfully for Camden Council.

2008

She has campaigned for political parties internationally and, in 2008, campaigned for Barack Obama in the U.S.

2009

Her mother's elder sister, Sheikh Hasina, has been the Prime Minister of Bangladesh since 2009.

2010

A member of the Labour Party, she was the Camden London Borough Councillor for Regent's Park from 2010 until 2014.

She is niece to the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina.

Siddiq is the daughter of former Dhaka University professor Shafique Ahmed Siddique, and Sheikh Rehana, who gained political asylum in the UK as a teenager.

In the 2010 local government elections, she became the first female Bangladeshi councillor for Camden Council, where she was Cabinet Member for Culture and Communities until May 2014.

The seat had previously been held by Glenda Jackson, and had been the second most marginal in the country after Jackson retained it by just 42 votes in 2010.

2011

In September 2011, she completed a second master's degree in Politics, Policy and Government.

Her maternal grandfather is Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, founding father and the first President of Bangladesh.

2013

In July 2013, Siddiq was selected by local party members as the Labour prospective parliamentary candidate for the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency, despite a smear campaign.

She later claimed that because of her Muslim surname, she was advised against standing in the constituency by senior party members, due to Hampstead's large Jewish population.

During 2013 and 2014, she campaigned against the proposed high-speed railway expansion High Speed 2, and high payday lender charges on Kilburn High Road.

She also campaigned in support of local services, such as to keep Belsize Fire Station open, to improve disabled access at West Hampstead tube station, and to save the Swiss Cottage post office.

2015

In the 2015 general election, Siddiq won the Hampstead and Kilburn seat with 23,977 votes, with a turnout of 67.3%.

In 2015, it was described as the UK's most marginal general election contest.

In June 2015, Siddiq was appointed a vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Antisemitism.

She is also a member of the Women and Equalities Select Committee.

In the same month, she was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate in the Labour leadership election, although she later supported Andy Burnham.

In September 2015, Siddiq, along with Keir Starmer and Catherine West, wrote a letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron seeking urgent action to address the refugee crisis due to the Syrian Civil War.

In the same month, she was appointed Permanent Private Secretary to the Shadow Minister for Culture, Media and Sport, Michael Dugher.

In November 2015, she campaigned against changes to junior doctor contracts.

In the same month, Siddiq's maiden speech in Parliament was judged one of the top seven from 2015's intake of MPs by the BBC.

2016

In October 2016, she was appointed as Shadow Education Minister in the Labour Party's frontbench in Parliament, taking on the childcare and early years education brief and working with Shadow Secretary of State for Education Angela Rayner.