Zarah Sultana

Some Lesser Known Facts About Zarah Sultana

• Zarah Sultana grew up in a Muslim family of Pakistani descent in Lozells, Birmingham.

• Her grandfather hailed from Thub, a village in the Dadyal tehsil of Mirpur district in Azad Kashmir. He moved to Birmingham in the 1960s.

• In 2011, Zarah joined the Labour Party while she was still doing her A-levels. She decided to join after the coalition government raised university tuition fees to £9,000.

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

• In May 2019, Sultana contested the European Parliament elections as one of Labour’s candidates for the West Midlands constituency.

• She was placed fifth on Labour’s list of seven candidates, but since the party secured only one seat in that region, she was not elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP).

• In October 2019, Zarah Sultana was selected to contest the general election from the Coventry South constituency for the Labour Party after incumbent MP Jim Cunningham stepped down from the role. She won with a majority of 401 votes.

• During the October 2019 elections, several major trade unions supported Zarah Sultana’s campaign, though some local Labour members opposed her selection, as they preferred a candidate from the area.

• In September 2020, she supported a ten-minute rule bill that aimed to let voters remove MPs who changed their party. However, the bill didn’t go through as it ran out of time in Parliament in May 2021.

• In December 2020, Sultana supported UNICEF’s decision to fund breakfast boxes for struggling children in Southwark, London. When politician Jacob Rees-Mogg called it a “political stunt,” she responded by sending him ‘A Christmas Carol,’ a novel by Charles Dickens that highlights poverty and compassion.

  

• In April 2021, Zarah was featured in Vogue with other Labour MPs, where she discussed facing racism and hate as a Muslim woman in politics.

• In May 2021, she was among several public figures who signed an open letter in Stylist magazine, urging the government to tackle male violence through a nationwide awareness campaign led by experts.

• During a parliamentary session in September 2021, she became emotional while speaking about the Islamophobic abuse she had experienced since taking office.

• In October 2021, she joined cross-party MPs, including Caroline Lucas and Clive Lewis, to introduce the Green New Deal Bill, which she described as a bold and fair plan to fight climate change and ensure social justice.

• In 2023, Zarah was recognised by ‘Pagefield,’ a public relations firm, with a nomination for the ‘Backbencher of the Year’ award.

• In May 2023, Zarah Sultana was featured on the New Statesman’s ‘Left Power List’ at number 47. She was recognised as a rare figure in politics for her ability to go viral and engage large audiences online.

• She contested the July 2024 general election as the Labour Party candidate from the Coventry South constituency and won with a much bigger lead of over 10,000 votes.

• On 3 July 2025, Zarah quit the Labour Party and announced her intention to join former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in building a new left-wing political party.