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Rosena Chantelle Allin-Khan (born 10 May 1978)[1] is a British politician and medical doctor serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting since 2016. A member of the Labour Party, she attended shadow cabinet as Shadow Minister for Mental Health from 2020 to 2023.
Rosena Allin-Khan | |||||||||||||
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 Official portrait, 2019 | |||||||||||||
| Member of Parliament for Tooting | |||||||||||||
| Assumed office 16 June 2016 | |||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Sadiq Khan | ||||||||||||
| Majority | 19,487 (36.8%) | ||||||||||||
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| Member of Wandsworth Council for Bedford | |||||||||||||
| In office 22 May 2014 – 3 May 2018 | |||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||
| Born | Rosena Chantelle Allin-Khan 10 May 1978 Tooting, London, England | ||||||||||||
| Political party | Labour | ||||||||||||
| Residence(s) | Tooting, London, England | ||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Brunel University Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge | ||||||||||||
| Occupation |
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| Website | drrosena | ||||||||||||
She stood as a candidate at the 2020 Labour Party deputy leadership election, finishing in second-place after three rounds of voting.[2] She was previously Shadow Minister for Sport between October 2016 and January 2020.
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Rosena Chantelle Allin-Khan was born in Tooting.[3][4] Her parents were both musicians: her Polish mother had been a singer in the Polish girl group Filipinki, and met her father, originally from Pakistan, while the band was on tour in London.[5] After having two children together, the couple separated. Rosena's mother worked at three jobs to support Rosena and her brother.[5]
Allin-Khan was educated at Trinity St Mary's Primary School, Balham, followed by The Grey Coat Hospital.[6][7] But her disappointing A-level grades, two Es and a U, dashed her hopes of being accepted to study medicine.[8] Instead, she studied medical biochemistry at Brunel University, funding her education through a series of part-time jobs and establishing a strong record.[5] She was accepted to study medicine at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, where she was assisted by scholarships.[5]
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After qualifying as a doctor, Allin-Khan worked at the Royal London and Homerton Hospitals.[9] She also completed a Master's degree in public health.[10] Following this, she worked as a humanitarian aid doctor in Gaza and Israel, Africa, and Asia.[11][12]
Prior to her election to the House of Commons, she worked as a junior doctor in the accident and emergency department at St George's Hospital in Tooting.[7][9] In addition to her parliamentary work, Allin-Khan continues to work occasional shifts at St George's Hospital during parliamentary recesses.[13][14]
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Allin-Khan's work in public health also led her to become active in local politics. She was elected as a councillor on Wandsworth Council for Bedford Ward in Balham, serving from 2014 to 2018.[15][16] She served as deputy leader of the council's Labour group.[5][7][9]
Allin-Khan was selected as the Labour Party candidate for the Tooting constituency, after the seat became vacant in May 2016; the sitting MP, Sadiq Khan, had resigned after he had won that year's London mayoral election.[7]
Allin-Khan's by-election campaign emphasised her local, working-class roots and Polish-Pakistani ancestry.[17] When the election results were announced, Allin-Khan read a tribute to Jo Cox, the Labour MP for Batley and Spen who was murdered on the day of the by-election.[18]
She campaigned to remain in the EU during the 2016 Brexit referendum, and later campaigned with the same position for a second referendum on the issue.[19][20][21]
In October 2016, Allin-Khan was appointed Shadow Minister for Sport.[22] While in this position, she pledged to introduce safe standing at football matches in the UK from the 2020/21 season, if Labour won the next election.[23][24] She further campaigned to have England's semi-final match against Croatia during the 2018 World Cup to be shown on big screens in public. She said that the St George's Flag had become associated with the far-right, and was pleased that the success of England in the World Cup had helped reclaim the flag for the wider population.[25]
Allin-Khan retained her seat in the 2017 general election and the 2019 general elections. She received a higher number of votes in the first of these elections, strengthening her position,[26] but falling back slightly in the 2019 election.[27]
Allin-Khan stood as a candidate in the 2020 Labour Party deputy leadership election. During the campaign, she said that she would be a unifying candidate, and highlighted her working-class background, and experience as a doctor.[28][29] She ultimately received 77,351 (16.8%) of first preference votes, and 113,858 (26.1%) in the final round, coming second to Angela Rayner.[2][30]
She was appointed as Shadow Minister for Mental Health in Keir Starmer's first shadow cabinet, shadowing Nadine Dorries.[31] At the start of the coronavirus pandemic in the UK, Allin-Khan has been working 12-hour shifts at St George's Hospital in Tooting, in addition to her job as an MP and a shadow minister.[32][33]
She called for more mental health support to NHS staff during the pandemic, noting that there was a "rise in suicides, self-harm and suicidal ideation among frontline NHS and care staff" due to "a lack of PPE, an increased workload ... and witnessing more patients die".[34][35] She also criticised the UK Government for being too slow in acting, saying that it should have sooner introduced measures such as the lockdown and widespread testing.[36]
In October 2020, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards rebuked Allin-Khan for breaching the Code of Conduct for Members of Parliament. As this was Allin-Khan's third breach of the rules, the matter was referred to the Parliamentary Committee on Standards.[37][38]
In the May 2021 British shadow cabinet reshuffle, she was made a Shadow Secretary of State, which was changed to Shadow Cabinet Minister in November 2021.[39]
Allin-Khan resigned from the Shadow Cabinet of Keir Starmer on 4 September 2023, criticising Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting's advocacy for outsourcing the National Health Service (NHS) to the private sector.[40] She also said that Starmer did "not see a space for a mental health portfolio in a Labour cabinet".[41][42][43]
At the 2024 general election, Allin-Khan was elected with an increased majority of 19,497, receiving 55.2% of the total vote share as well as the most raw votes of any Labour MP in the country.[44]
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Allin-Khan is married and lives in Tooting with her husband, who is Welsh.[5] She is a Muslim.[5] The couple have two daughters.[3][7]
She is an amateur boxer, training at Balham Boxing Club. Allin-Khan also serves as the team doctor.[5]
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