Uma Kumaran

Uma Kumaran is the Labour MP for Stratford and Bow and the first person of Tamil ancestry elected to the UK Parliament. Born in East London to Sri Lankan Tamil parents who fled the civil war as refugees, helped on arrival by the then backbencher Jeremy Corbyn, she has framed her election as a mission: "We have never had a voice on those historic green benches. It is my ambition to change that." She grew up in Harrow and read Politics and Public Policy at Queen Mary University of London, which sits in Mile End within the very seat she now represents.

Her career before Parliament was almost entirely in politics and policy. After early work for NHS Professionals, she was a parliamentary researcher and caseworker for the Labour MP Dawn Butler, then Senior Adviser to Mayor Sadiq Khan from 2017 to 2020, Deputy Director of Parliamentary Affairs for Keir Starmer from 2020 to 2022, where she worked on PMQs preparation and Shadow Cabinet relations, and Director of Diplomatic and International Relations at the C40 Cities climate group from 2022 to 2024. She is an advisory board member of the Labour Climate and Environment Forum.

She was elected in 2024 with 19,145 votes (44.1 per cent) and a majority of 11,634 (26.8 per cent). She sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and her APPG interests include Tamils, Refugees, India, and Race and Community. She has voted in 348 divisions with no whipped rebellions.