Zarah Sultana

Zarah Sultana     (politician)
Born	31 October 1993
Alma mater	University of Birmingham
Member of Parliament for Coventry South In office 12 December 2019 - Present

Zarah Sultana (born 31 October 1993) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Coventry South since the UK/2019 General Election.

On 17 January 2021, Zarah Sultana tweeted:

"If you told me a few years ago that I would speak on a panel alongside Noam Chomsky, I would’ve asked what you had been smoking.

"But this afternoon, that happened.

"Huge honour to speak at the launch of @jeremycorbyn’s Project for Peace and Justice.

"We have a world to win!"

Student politics

Zarah Sultana joined the Labour Party in 2011, whilst doing her A-levels, following the coalition government's decision to treble university tuition fees to £9,000.

While at Birmingham University, Sultana was elected to the National Executive Council of both Young Labour and the National Union of Students.

Political career

In January 2021, Michael Segalov of VICE News reported:

Zarah Sultana – Labour's newly elected MP for Coventry South – decided to ignore the convention that maiden speeches in Parliament remain uncontroversial. Instead, the 26-year-old MP made something of a splash with her debut performance.

"In ten years' time," Sultana said from the benches, "at the start of the next decade, I want to look teenagers in the eye and say with pride, 'My generation faced 40 years of Thatcherism and we ended it. We faced rising racism and we defeated it. We faced a planet in peril and we saved it.' We have our work cut out, but together we can do it."

I meet Sultana on Parliament's terrace a few days later. She seems unfazed by all the attention. "My point wasn't that under Blair Labour didn't do some great things in government," she explains. "I just think we need to have a bit of nuance."

"Blair oversaw Sure Start centres, the national minimum wage and council house building which changed people's lives," she says. "But at the same time we didn't see the reversal of anti-trade union laws, and we saw more privatisation. Deregulation of the city wasn't reversed; he was responsible for tuition fees, the Prevent strategy and PFI. We didn't turn our backs on neoliberalism." (Blair has said as much himself. "My job was to build on some Thatcher policies," he said in 2013.)

Commitment to anti-racism

Another defining feature of Sultana's maiden speech was her clear commitment to anti-racism and intersectionality:

"I know my Muslim brothers and sisters, my Jewish comrades, my friends in the Gypsy, Traveller and Roma communities, and people of all faiths and none," she said, "are safer when we unite to defeat the far-right."

"When I'm looking at what's happening across the world now," she continues, "the people who are targeting Jews have a similar hatred for Muslims, for LGBT people. Because that's what White Supremacy is. Over years and years, I have gone on to understand this better.

"Things will pass inside here," she says. "The Tories have a huge majority. We'll have to be more organised outside Parliament to fight for workers' rights, action on climate change and helping those who need support in our local communities. And I'll be part of that, but with fewer Labour voices in here, I'll speak up for the causes that can't be forgotten. I feel a huge sense of responsibility."

Parliament Square protest rally

Addressing the rally against the PCSC Bill

On 15 March 2021, Zarah Sultana spoke at a rally in Parliament Square protesting against the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill and called for the resignation of Home Secretary Priti Patel:

"The right to protest is under attack from the Conservatives' #PoliceCrackdownBill.

"This evening I joined women in Parliament Square to say: We will not be silenced. We don't accept more police powers.

"Let's #KillTheBill and defend our rights."

 

Documents by Zarah Sultana

Title	Document type	Publication date	Subject(s)	Description
Document:The 20-year war on Afghanistan was a mistake	Speech	18 August 2021	"War on Terror" "Democracy" Afghanistan Stop the War Coalition Taliban War of aggression Afghanistan/2001 Invasion Afghanistan/2021 withdrawal	Speaking outside Parliament on 18 August 2021, prior to the Afghanistan emergency debate, Zarah Sultana joined colleagues including Jeremy Corbyn to say: "The war on Afghanistan shows – once and for all – that the West cannot deliver liberal democracy at the barrel of a gun. This war – the first 'War on Terror' – must be Britain's last war of aggression."
Document:Why We Need to Remember Srebrenica	article	3 December 2015	Srebrenica Massacre Genocide "Racism" "Extremism" Bosnia and Herzegovina Hate	Zarah Sultana, then a student at the University of Birmingham, wrote an article about her trip to Srebrenica

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Zarah Sultana could face re-selection as a Labour candidate	Article	11 November 2021	Politics.co.uk staff	At 5:56pm on 6 December 2021, Zarah Sultana tweeted: "I've submitted my application to be re-selected as the Labour MP for Coventry South. Determined to beat the Tories at the next general election!"

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References

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