Nusrat Ghani is a British Conservative politician who serves as a Member of Parliament and a senior figure in the House of Commons, known for breaking several diversity barriers in UK politics. She has held ministerial roles in government and is particularly associated with work on transport, human rights, and modern slavery issues.

Political role

  • Nusrat Ghani is a Conservative MP, originally elected to represent Wealden in East Sussex and later associated with the Sussex Weald constituency after boundary changes.
  • In 2024 she briefly served as Minister of State for Europe in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
  • In July 2024 she was elected Chairman of Ways and Means (Principal Deputy Speaker), becoming one of the Deputy Speakers of the House of Commons and the first ethnic minority MP to serve in that Chair role.

Background and early career

  • She was born in Pakistan-administered Kashmir (Dadayal area) on 1 September 1972 and moved to the UK, growing up in Birmingham.
  • Ghani studied government and politics at Birmingham City University and later completed a masterā€™s degree in international relations at the University of Leeds.
  • Before entering Parliament, she worked for charities such as Age UK and Breakthrough Breast Cancer, and then for the BBC World Service.

Government and committee work

  • Ghani served as a minister in the Department for Transport from 2018 to 2020, including as Minister for Maritime and Minister for the Year of Engineering, covering areas such as HS2, buses, taxis and accessibility across transport.
  • She became the first female Muslim minister to speak from the House of Commons dispatch box, a milestone she has described as significant for representation in British politics.
  • She has sat on major select committees including Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs and Business (BEIS), working on issues like security, counterā€‘terrorism, antisemitism, Covidā€‘19 response, and UK industrial strategy.

Human rights and China sanctions

  • Ghani has been prominent on human rights, especially over the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang and forced labour in global supply chains.
  • Her work on supply-chain transparency and Uyghur slave labour led to her being sanctioned by the Chinese Communist Party in March 2021, making her the only woman MP included in that specific UK sanctions list.
  • She helped drive a ā€œGenocide Amendmentā€ to the UK Trade Bill, aimed at preventing trade deals with countries committing genocide, and was nominated for the NATO Women for Peace and Security Award, finishing runner-up to Nancy Pelosi.

Recent profile and public presence

  • As Deputy Speaker and Chairman of Ways and Means, she now plays a central role in overseeing Commons debates, procedure and supporting other MPs in their work.
  • She remains active on issues of technology, AI, misinformation and parliamentary transparency, discussing how parliaments should adapt to new digital risks and deepfakes.
  • Ghani also maintains a visible public and online profile, regularly posting updates on parliamentary business, constituency work and international engagements.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.