Yasmin Qureshi was first elected as the Labour MP for Bolton South East in 2010, being reelected in 2019 with a majority of 7,598.
Contained within Greater Manchester, Bolton South East is the strongest supporting Labour area in Bolton. Relatively deprived compared to the other Bolton’s seats, over a fifth of the electorate are of Asian descent.
Qureshi was appointed as the Shadow Minister for International Development in 2020, having previously served as Shadow Minister of Justice between 2016 and 2020.
Born in 1963, Qureshi grew up in Pakistan and moved to the UK at the age of nine. She worked as a Barrister before becoming an MP. She began her legal career with the Crown Prosecution Service as an in-house Barrister, and prosecuted on behalf of the Crown in numerous criminal cases.
Qureshi was later the Head of the Criminal Legal Section of the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and later the Director of the department of Judicial Administration in Kosovo.
She also served as a Human Rights advisor to Ken Livingstone during his second term as London mayor between 2004 and 2008.
Yasmin Qureshi became Britain’s first female Muslim MP when elected in 2010 alongside Shabana Mahmood and Rushanara Ali. She opposed military intervention in Syria.
Qureshi supported Emily Thornberry in the 2019 Labour leadership election.
In 2020, Qureshi was admitted to hospital with pneumonia after testing positive for Covid-19.
Yasmin Qureshi is the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on Religion in the Media; Srebrenica; Uyghur; Pakistan; Dalits; Hormone Pregnancy Tests; Hajj and Umrah; and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
She is Vice Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on Inclusive Entrepreneurship; Regeneration and Development, Sixth Form Education, Dentistry, Dyslexia, Taxis, Kuwait, and British Muslims.
According to the Register of Members Interests, she employs her husband, Nadeem Ashraf, as Constituency Caseworker and Administrative Officer.
Email: yasmin.qureshi.mp@parliament.uk
Personal Website: www.yasminqureshi.org.uk
Twitter: @YasminQureshiMP
