Shabana Mahmood

The Right Honourable
Shabana Mahmood
KC MP
Official portrait, 2024
Secretary of State for Justice
Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
Incumbent
Assumed office
5 July 2024
Prime MinisterKeir Starmer
Preceded byAlex Chalk
Shadow portfolios
Shadow Cabinet
2023–2024Justice, Lord Chancellor
2021–2023National Campaign Co-ordinator
2015Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Shadow Minister
2013–2015Financial Secretary to the Treasury
2013Universities and Science
2011–2013Higher Education
2010–2011Prisons
Member of Parliament
for Birmingham Ladywood
Incumbent
Assumed office
6 May 2010
Preceded byClare Short
Majority3,421 (9.4%)[1]
Personal details
Born (1980-09-17) 17 September 1980 (age 44)
Small Heath, Birmingham, England
Political partyLabour
Alma materLincoln College, Oxford (BA)
WebsiteOfficial website

Shabana Mahmood (born 17 September 1980) is a British politician and barrister who has been serving as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice since 2024. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Ladywood since 2010. Between 2010 and 2024 she held various shadow junior ministerial and shadow cabinet positions under leaders Ed Miliband, Harriet Harman, and Keir Starmer.

Mahmood graduated with an upper-second class degree in Law from Lincoln College, University of Oxford, in 2002 and went on to complete the Bar Vocational Course at the Inns of Court School of Law in 2003 after receiving a scholarship. As a barrister, her specialism is in professional indemnity. Her selection as the Labour Party candidate for Birmingham Ladywood for the 2010 general election caused some dissent in the constituency party, but was found by an inquiry led by a member of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party to be legitimate. She was subsequently elected as MP for Birmingham Ladywood, becoming one of the UK's first female Muslim MPs, along with Rushanara Ali and Yasmin Qureshi. Between 2010 and 2024, while the Labour Party was the Official Opposition, she held various shadow frontbench positions, including Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 2013 to 2015.

After the 2015 general election, Mahmood was promoted to the Shadow cabinet and served as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury in the interim Shadow Cabinet of Harriet Harman. Following Jeremy Corbyn's election as Labour leader, Mahmood resigned from the position and declined to serve in Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet. She supported Owen Smith in the attempt to replace Corbyn in the 2016 leadership election. After serving on the backbenches between 2015 and 2021, Mahmood returned to the shadow cabinet in the May 2021 British shadow cabinet reshuffle under Labour Leader Keir Starmer as the Party's National Campaign Coordinator. In the September 2023 British Shadow Cabinet Reshuffle, Starmer appointed Mahmood Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor.

Following Labour's victory in the 2024 general election, Mahmood was appointed Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice in Starmer's government. During her tenure, she has implemented an early release scheme for thousands of prisoners in order to reduce prison overcrowding.

Early life and career

Shabana Mahmood was born on 17 September 1980 in Birmingham, the daughter of Zubaida and Mahmood Ahmed.[2] Her parents are of Pakistani descent with roots in Mirpur, Kashmir.[3] She has a twin brother.[4] From 1981 to 1986 she lived with her family in Taif, Saudi Arabia, where her father was working as a civil engineer on desalination.[3][4] After that, she was brought up in Birmingham, where, having failed the eleven-plus, she attended Small Heath School and King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls.[5][2][4]

Her mother worked in a corner grocery shop that the family bought after returning to England.[4] Her father became chair of the local Labour party,[6] and as a teenager, Mahmood helped him with campaigning in local elections.[7] In an interview with Nick Robinson in 2024, Mahmood said that although politics "had always been part of [her] life", her ambition when younger was to be a barrister, and cited the example of the fictional Kavanagh QC.[8]

Mahmood studied law at Lincoln College at the University of Oxford, and was the president of the Junior Common Room (JCR).[9] She graduated with an upper-second class degree in 2002.[10][11] In 2023 she recalled that Rishi Sunak, who would go on to become prime minister, was in the year above her at Lincoln College, and had promised to vote for her in the JCR election.[7]

She graduated in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. She went on to complete the Bar Vocational Course at the Inns of Court School of Law in 2003,[2] having received a scholarship from Gray's Inn.[12][13] She is a qualified barrister, specialising in professional indemnity law,[14] and worked at 12 King's Bench Walk from 2003 to 2004, and at Berrymans Lace Mawer from 2004 to 2007.[2]

Parliamentary career

Early career and frontbench (2010–2015)

Clare Short, the incumbent MP for Birmingham Ladywood, decided not to contest the 2010 general election.[15] Mahmood and a local councillor, Yvonne Mosquito, both sought the Labour Party nomination.[15] In the vote of Constituency Labour Party (CLP) members to select the candidate, Mahmood secured 118 votes while Mosquito received 99.[16] Supporters of Mosquito claimed that up to 30 members were prevented from voting for her following a rule change affecting eligibility.[16] According to the political scholars Parveen Akhtar and Timothy Peace, "This led to the CLP being temporarily split on race lines between Asian and Afro-Caribbean factions, demonstrating the complicated ethnic tensions at play in some U.K. constituencies."[15] Mahmood said that she did not feel that the local party was divided in this way, and commented that "I know there is a line out there about divisions, my experience doesn't mirror that in any way."[17][18] An inquiry led by National Executive Committee of the Labour Party member Mike Griffiths found that Mahmood's victory was legitimate.[16]

At the 2010 general election, Mahmood was elected as MP for Birmingham Ladywood with 55.7% of the vote and a majority of 10,105.[19][20][21][22] Along with Rushanara Ali and Yasmin Qureshi, Mahmood became one of the UK's first female Muslim MPs.[5] The Labour Party was the Official Opposition, and Mahmood held various shadow cabinet front bench positions under new leader Ed Miliband, including Shadow Minister for Prisons, Shadow Minister for Higher Education, and Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury.[23][24]

In 2011, it was reported that Mahmood was on the list of people spied on by private investigator Derek Webb for the News of the World, which was seeking information about the people of most interest to their readers.[25]

At the 2015 general election, Mahmood was re-elected as MP for Birmingham Ladywood with an increased vote share of 73.6% and an increased majority of 21,868.[26] Following the election, Mahmood was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.[27] Nationwide, the Labour Party's election results were below expectations, and party leader Ed Miliband resigned the following day.[28] Mahmood was a co-chair of the campaign to elect Yvette Cooper in the 2015 Labour Party leadership election, and made a pledge to avoid negative briefing during the campaign.[29]

Return to the backbenches (2015–2021)

In September 2015, following Jeremy Corbyn's election as Labour leader, Mahmood stepped down from the role, saying she "strongly disagreed" with him on the economy.[30] The following month, she was one of the winners of the women's magazine Marie Claire's Women at the Top Awards.[31]

In January 2016, Mahmood was elected to represent the Parliamentary Labour Party on Labour's National Executive Committee, and was re-elected in July 2016.[32][33] She was offered a place in Corbyn's shadow cabinet, but declined, telling him that "I'll be miserable, and I'll make you miserable as well."[7] In November 2016, Mahmood was elected one of the vice chairs of Labour's National Policy Forum.[34] She supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Jeremy Corbyn in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election.[35]

At the snap 2017 general election, Mahmood was again re-elected with an increased vote share of 82.7% and an increased majority of 28,714.[36]

Mahmood was again re-elected at the 2019 general election with a decreased vote share of 79.2% and a decreased majority of 28,582.[37] After Labour's election loss, Mahmood was asked to commission a review launched by Labour Together of the party's election performance.[38]

Return to the frontbench (2021–2024)

In the May 2021 British shadow cabinet reshuffle, Mahmood returned to the Shadow Cabinet as Labour Party National Campaign Coordinator, replacing Angela Rayner in the role.[39] Peter Walker of The Guardian considered that Mahmood and Labour's campaign director Morgan McSweeney had improved the campaign organisation and use of data by the party by 2023.[40]

Keir Starmer appointed Mahmood, seen as an ally of his, as Shadow Secretary of State for Justice in September 2023.[41][42] She was replaced as campaign co-ordinator by Pat McFadden.[42] Also that month, Mahmood was named by the New Statesman as the UK's twentieth most powerful left-wing figure.[43]

At the 2024 general election, Mahmood was re-elected with a decreased share of 42.5% and a majority of 3,421.[44] She had been challenged by independent candidate Akhmed Yakoob, whose campaign focused on support for Palestine.[45][46] Yakoob finished second behind Mahmood, with 12,137 votes,[47] following a campaign that Mahmood described as "sullied by harassment and intimidation".[46]

Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor (2024–present)

On 5 July 2024, Starmer appointed Mahmood as the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor.[48] This made her the first Muslim and second female Lord Chancellor in history.[49][50] Conservative Party politician Liz Truss was the first woman to hold the role, having been appointed in the first May ministry in July 2016 as the first female lord chancellor in the office's thousand-year history.[51][a]

A week after her appointment, she announced measures intended to decrease prison overcrowding, describing the situation in prisons as a ticking "time bomb" and saying that prisons were on the "point of collapse".[53][54] Under her plans, some prisoners would be released after serving 40% of their sentences in England and Wales, rather than the 50% announced previously in October 2023.[55] She stated that she expected that the number of prisoners to be released in September 2024 would be "in the low thousands", with further releases over the following 18 months with updates in parliament every three months.[56][53] This included 37 who were not eligible for early release. At least one is suspected to have gone on to offend again.[57]

Following the 2024 United Kingdom riots, Mahmood pledged that "the full force of the law [would] be brought against" the rioters, and those inciting them.[58] She also remarked that the volume of cases relating to the riots would affect the UK's justice system for years.[58]

Political positions

Israel and Palestine

Mahmood says on her website that she is a passionate supporter of Palestinian rights.[59] In 2014, Mahmood took part in a demonstration outside a branch of Sainsbury's in central Birmingham. She said "We lay down in the street and we laid down inside Sainsbury's to say we object to them stocking goods from illegal settlements – and that they must stop. We managed to close down that store at peak time on a Saturday. This is how we can make a difference."[60] The Jewish Chronicle reported that she was criticised for this by members of the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council. The report also said that the chair of the Jewish Labour Movement and the director of Antisemitism Policy Trust both said that she had taken action against anti-semitism.[61]

LGBT issues

In March 2019, Mahmood was criticised by activists within her party after stating that the "religious background" of pupils and "age appropriateness" should be considered when teaching LGBTQ+ content during Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) lessons in schools, after 1,700 of her constituents signed a petition objecting to teaching such content at a Birmingham primary school.[62] Columnist Owen Jones said on Twitter that her remarks were "shocking", feeling that they supported parents "trying to stop lessons educating pupils about the existence of gay people".[63] Mahmood replied that she had never advocated for the exclusion of LGBT relationships from RSE lessons.[63]

In a 2024 interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mahmood said that she was concerned with the treatment of gender-critical activists, saying that "many women have had to go to court, usually in employment tribunals, in order to clarify ... their right to say that biological sex is real and is immutable – a position that I also agree with" and that women "shouldn't be in the position of losing their jobs" for espousing those views. She also said that she "agrees with JK Rowling" regarding the view that "biological sex is real and is immutable", and that Rowling was "leading the fight in this area".[64][65]

Assisted dying

Mahmood stated in October 2024 that she was opposed to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on assisted dying. She said: 'I voted against the bill when it was last introduced in 2015. I'll be voting against it again. As a Muslim, I have an unshakable belief in the sanctity and value of human life. I don't think death is a service that the state should be offering.'[66]

Personal life

In a 2024 interview with Gabriel Pogrund of The Sunday Times, Mahmood was described as a "devout Muslim". She said, "My faith is the centrepoint of my life and it drives me to public service, it drives me in the way that I live my life and I see my life."[4] She lives next door to her parents.[4]

Mahmood was sworn into the Privy Council on 6 July 2024, entitling her to be styled "The Right Honourable".[67]

Notes

  1. ^ Excluding Eleanor of Provence, who exercised the powers of the lord chancellor in 1253 but was not formally appointed to the office.[51][52]

References

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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Birmingham, Ladywood
2010–present 		Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Shadow Minister for Prisons
2010–2011 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Shadow Minister for Higher Education
2011–2013 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury
2013–2015 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
2015 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
2023–2024 		Succeeded by
Shadow Lord Chancellor
2023–2024
Preceded by Secretary of State for Justice
2024–present 		Incumbent
Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
2024–present
Party political offices
Preceded by Labour Party National Campaign Coordinator
2021–2023 		Succeeded by
Order of precedence in England and Wales
Preceded by Ladies
as Lord Chancellor 		Succeeded byas Lord President of the Council
Order of precedence in Scotland
Preceded by Ladies
as Lord Chancellor 		Succeeded by
Commonwealth Prime Ministers