Yasmin Qureshi

Qureshi was born in Gujrat City, Pakistan and moved to Britain when she was nine. Her father was an engineer and the family lived in Watford. She is the youngest of three children.

She attended the Polytechnic of the South Bank (later London South Bank University) and graduated with a BA (Hons) Law degree before studying for and sitting her examinations for the Bar at the Council of Legal Education. She gained a Master of Laws at University College London.

At the age of 16, Qureshi joined the Labour Party and became active in local politics.

She stood, unsuccessfully, for Labour in the London constituency of Brent East in 2005. She has worked as a human rights advisor to the former London mayor Ken Livingstone and previously headed the criminal legal section of the UN Mission in Kosovo. Qureshi previously chaired the Human Rights and Civil Liberties Working Group of the Association of Muslim Lawyers and was President of the Pakistan Club (UK).

She was elected at the 2010 general election in the safe Labour seat of Bolton South East. Qureshi, Rushanara Ali and Shabana Mahmood, elected at the same time, became Britain's first female Muslim MPs. Qureshi is also the first woman to be elected as the Member of Parliament for Bolton South East.

In February 2014, during a parliamentary debate, she said: "Of course, many millions perished" in the Holocaust. "It is quite strange that some of the people who are running the state of Israel seem to be quite complacent and happy to allow the same to happen in Gaza". In response, Karen Pollock of the Holocaust Educational Trust said: "We expect our politicians to speak responsibly and sensitively about the past and about events today," Pollock said. "These lazy and deliberate distortions have no place in British politics". Qureshi apologised.

In May 2014, Qureshi opposed mandatory labelling of meat coming from animals killed by halal and kosher methods. She claimed halal slaughtering can be significantly less painful for animals than the more widespread method of stunning, saying "a myth is being perpetuated that somehow kosher and halal methods, carried out as they should be, are more painful and cause more suffering to the animal, but that is incorrect".

In early October 2016, Qureshi was appointed as a Shadow Minister for Justice by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

In January 2013 and 2015, Qureshi was nominated for the Politician of the Year award at the British Muslim Awards. In January 2014, she was awarded the Politician of the Year award at the British Muslim Awards.