Tulip Siddiq did not replace her last name with her husband’s to woo voters as suggested by some among her Muslim electorate. Her husband Chris Percy is a British civil servant.
Published : 30 Dec 2015, 11:07 PM
She was elected to Britain’s House of Commons last May from London’s Hampstead and Kilburn, and drew global attention with her maiden speech in parliament.
Her foray into politics was no surprise. Granddaughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, she also said she knew since her childhood that she would go into politics.
But she had never dreamt of being an MP in Britain.
The maiden address, which highlighted the safety Britain offered refugees and asylum seekers during a debate on the European Union Referendum Bill, found a place among the BBC’s most memorable maiden speeches in the British parliament.
Tulip termed herself “a daughter of asylum seeker” in the speech while describing her mother Sheikh Rehana’s ordeal, as she had to flee Bangladesh as a political refugee when the Father of the Nation was killed in 1975.
“I would like to ban him from coming to my country (UK),” she then reacted staunchly.
“Determined, principled, and feminist” were the three words she used to define her personality when a youth asked her how she portrayed herself at an interaction in Dhaka on Wednesday.
She inspired the youths with her personal and political stories of the ‘road to Westminster’ and advised them to be focused on what they dreamt to be.
“You can do what you want to do,” she told the youths, who were mostly university students.
Her election from Kilburn was challenging as the seat had long been held by two-time Oscar winning actress-turned-politician Glenda Jackson.
“It was a big challenge,” the Labour Party MP said. A massive community campaign helped her to get acquainted with her electorate.
Her joining the Labour Party has a background. Her father had to undergo a treatment under the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) when she was 10 years old.
“I saw the value of public service then,” she said. The NHS was born under the Labour Party. “So, I decided to join that party.”
The path to Westminster was not smooth. But she always believed that “in politics you cannot expect to win all the time. If you think so, then you’ll be disappointed”.
“I lost the first election. But I enjoyed the whole process. Then in 2008 I campaigned for Obama in the US.”