Khalid Mahmood
MP
Official portrait, 2019
Shadow Minister for Defence Procurement
In office
9 April 2020 – 13 April 2021
LeaderKeir Starmer
Preceded byStephen Morgan
Succeeded byChris Evans
Shadow Minister for Europe
In office
6 October 2016 – 9 April 2020
LeaderJeremy Corbyn
Preceded byFabian Hamilton
Succeeded byCatherine West
Member of Parliament
for Birmingham Perry Barr
Assumed office
7 June 2001
Preceded byJeff Rooker
Majority15,317 (36.3%)
Personal details
Born (1961-07-13) 13 July 1961
Pakistan-administered Kashmir
NationalityBritish
Political partyLabour
Alma materUCE Birmingham
Websitewww.khalidmahmoodmp.com

Khalid Mahmood (born 13 July 1961) is a British Labour Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Perry Barr since 2001. He served on the Labour front bench as a shadow Foreign Office minister under leader Jeremy Corbyn, and a shadow Defence minister under leader Keir Starmer until his resignation in 2021. He is also the longest serving Asian MP in the current Parliament.

Early life and education

Khalid Mahmood was born on 13 July 1961 in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. His family moved to Birmingham, England when he was two years old.[1] He studied at UCE Birmingham.

Mahmood is a former engineer with a trade union background.[2] He was a Birmingham City Councillor from 1990 to 1993.[1]

Political career

Mahmood was elected as the MP for Birmingham Perry Barr in the 2001 general election, becoming the first Muslim MP in England.[3][4] He held his seat at the 2005 general election. In November 2005 he was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Tony McNulty, then a minister in the Home Office. He resigned in September 2006 along with several colleagues after signing a letter calling for Tony Blair to resign as prime minister.[5]

In May 2009, it was reported, as part of a series of leaked UK MPs expense details, that Mahmood claimed for £1,350 to stay in a five-star west London hotel with his girlfriend.[6] He also claimed more than £35,000 in expenses for food over eight years.[7]

He was again elected in the 2010 general election. Mahmood opposed the decision by Birmingham College in 2013 to ban students wearing veils.[8] In January 2015, he was nominated for the Politician of the Year award at the British Muslim Awards.[9]

Mahmood was re-elected at the 2015 general election. He was appointed as Shadow Europe Minister in October 2016. He was re-elected in the 2017 general election.

In 2019, it was reported by the Birmingham Mail that Mahmood was the most expensive Birmingham MP in 2018, claiming £210,183 in expenses.[10]

He initially supported Brexit in the 2016 European Union membership referendum, but switched to Remain just before the vote.[11]

Mahmood was re-elected in the 2019 general election. After the election he announced that he would stand in the 2020 Labour Party deputy leadership election,[12] but pulled out of the contest in January 2020.[13] In March 2020, Mahmood defended the anti-racist campaigner Trevor Phillips from claims of Islamophobia, saying that Labour had "lost its way" after it had suspended Phillips. Mahmood said that the move to discipline Phillips had brought "disrepute" on the party.[14]

After Keir Starmer became leader of the Labour Party, Mahmood was appointed as Shadow Minister for Defence Procurement.[15]

As of March 2021, Mahmood is a member of seven All-Party Parliamentary Groups, namely the groups for Bahrain, Cyber Security, International Relations, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Sovereign Defence Capability, and Terrorism.[16]

Mahmood voted against the controversial Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill's second reading on 16 March 2021.[17]

On 13 April 2021,[18] Mahmood resigned from the shadow frontbench, saying that his party had been taken over by "a London-based bourgeoisie, with the support of brigades of woke social media warriors".[19] He later spoke to Spiked about his decision.[20]

Mahmood has always maintained that the Trojan Horse scandal involved genuine fears that non-violent extreme Islamist attitudes had infiltrated various Birmingham schools.[21] He contributed an introduction to this effect in the Policy Exchange report into the topic published in December 2022.[22]

Personal life

In January 2014, Mahmood underwent a kidney transplant at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Edgbaston, Birmingham, receiving an organ from a donor later revealed to be the Labour politician Siôn Simon.[23][24][25] He had been on dialysis, following kidney failure in 2008.[23] His twin brother had previously died from kidney failure.[24]

Mahmood is a member of Unite the Union.[12]

In August 2018, it was reported that Mahmood became involved in an employment tribunal over alleged religious discrimination brought about by his parliamentary assistant, Elaina Cohen, who is Jewish and with whom he was formerly in a 17-year relationship. It emerged that the costs of the legal battle were covered by a Parliamentary expenses system, which was ultimately funded by the taxpayer. The total cost to the taxpayer was reported to be almost £40,000.[26][27]

It was reported that, despite being in Tier 4 of the Government's priority list for the UK's COVID-19 vaccination, Mahmood was vaccinated in December 2020 at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, contrary to calls from National Health Service management that the public would be turned away without an appointment.[28]

In August 2022, Mahmood lost an employment tribunal claim with a former staffer, with the court finding his Parliamentary aide Elaina Cohen was unfairly dismissed and 'isolated' by her boss after raising concerns about alleged criminal actions by a colleague. The panel also ruled she had suffered detriment as a result of making a 'protected disclosure' in that she was 'marginalised and isolated in the period January 2020 until her dismissal.'[29]

References

  1. 1 2 "Mahmood, Khalid, (born 13 July 1961), MP (Lab) Birmingham Perry Barr, since 2001 | WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO". www.ukwhoswho.com. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U42395. ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4. Archived from the original on 30 December 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  2. ↑ Maguire, Kevin; Bloom, Dan (17 December 2019). "Khalid Mahmood announces bid to be Labour's deputy leader". Mirror. Archived from the original on 7 January 2020. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  3. ↑ "Birmingham Perry Barr 2001 Election Results". BBC News. Archived from the original on 9 August 2012. Retrieved 3 April 2010.
  4. ↑ "Muslim women vie to be first MP". 30 April 2010. Archived from the original on 30 December 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  5. ↑ "Blair hit by wave of resignations". BBC News. 6 September 2006. Archived from the original on 26 July 2008. Retrieved 3 April 2010.
  6. ↑ "Man behind expenses leak revealed". BBC News. 23 May 2009. Archived from the original on 29 June 2009. Retrieved 3 April 2010.
  7. ↑ Oldham, Jeanette (24 May 2009). "Expenses lovenest of Birmingham MP Khalid Mahmood". Sunday Mercury. Archived from the original on 27 May 2009. Retrieved 3 April 2010.
  8. ↑ Sherriff, Lucy (10 September 2013). "Muslim Students Banned From Wearing Veils, Niqabs, For 'Safety' At Birmingham Metropolitan College". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  9. ↑ "British Muslim Awards 2015 finalists unveiled". Asian Image. 23 January 2015. Archived from the original on 30 July 2015. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
  10. ↑ "Here are the most expensive and cheapest MPs in Birmingham". Birmingham Mail. 9 May 2019.
  11. ↑ "British Muslim MP defects to Remain over Brexit obsession with race". Middle East Eye édition française (in French). Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  12. 1 2 Walker, Jonathan (17 December 2019). "Birmingham MP Khalid Mahmood to stand for Labour Deputy Leader". birminghammail. Archived from the original on 30 December 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  13. ↑ "Birmingham MP Khalid Mahmood pulls out of contest to be Labour's Deputy Leader". 9 January 2020. Archived from the original on 11 January 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  14. ↑ "Shadow minister says Labour has 'lost its way' as party suspends anti-racism campaigner Trevor Phillips". politicshome.com. 9 March 2020.
  15. ↑ Munawar, Imran; Ali Shah, Murtaza (10 April 2020). "Six British Pakistani MPs added in Labour's new shadow cabinet". The News International. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  16. ↑ "Khalid Mahmood - Parallel Parliament". Parallel Parliament. Parallel Parliament. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  17. ↑ "Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill: Second Reading". UK Parliament. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  18. ↑ Mahmood, Khalid [@khalid4PB] (7 May 2021). "On the 13th of April 2021 I stepped down from the Labour front bench as Shadow Defence Procurement Minister" (Tweet). Retrieved 7 May 2021 – via Twitter.
  19. ↑ Woodcock, Andrew (7 May 2021). "Labour MP Khalid Mahmood quits Keir Starmer's frontbench, warning party taken over by 'woke social media warriors'". The Independent. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  20. ↑ "'Labour's policies are dictated by social media'". www.spiked-online.com. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  21. ↑ Walker, Jonathan (17 May 2019). "MP Khalid Mahmood insists Trojan Horse was real". BirminghamLive. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  22. ↑ Damon L. Perry; Paul Stot (2022). "The Trojan Horse Affair" (PDF). Policy Exchange. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  23. 1 2 Elkes, Neil (21 January 2014). "Birmingham MP Khalid Mahmood recovering after kidney transplant". Birmingham Mail. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 10 December 2015.
  24. 1 2 "Transplant MP Khalid Mahmood to return to Commons". BBC Online. 28 February 2014. Archived from the original on 9 November 2018. Retrieved 10 December 2015.
  25. ↑ "MEP's kidney donation to MP revealed". BBC Online. 11 October 2017. Archived from the original on 18 December 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  26. ↑ Mikhailova, Anna (27 August 2018). "How taxpayer was handed £40,000 bill after MP's love affair ended in discrimination claim". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  27. ↑ Walker, Jonathan (28 August 2018). "Birmingham MP Khalid Mahmood used public money to settle legal battle with assistant". Birmingham Mail. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  28. ↑ "Labour MP beats the vaccine queue". The Spectator. 29 December 2020.
  29. ↑ Haynes, Jane (2 August 2022). "Birmingham MP sacked aide unfairly". Birmingham Mail.
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