Which individual MPs publicly identify as Muslim and what constituencies do they name on their official biographies?
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Executive summary
Reporting from specialised outlets and aggregated lists indicates a record increase in British MPs who are publicly identified as Muslim after the 2024 general election, but there is no single official registry of MPs’ religions and Parliament does not require religious self-identification [1] [2]. Consequently, the most reliable available sources are journalistic and community outlets that name individual Muslim MPs alongside the constituencies they represent; those names and seats are summarized below with the caveat that verification against each MP’s official biography on Parliament’s site was not provided in the reporting available [3] [2].
1. Growth in Muslim representation — headline figures and the data gap
Multiple outlets reported a record tally of Muslim MPs — figures ranging from 21 to 25 were published — reflecting different counts and criteria used by organisations tracking faith and ethnicity in Parliament [1] [4] [5]; importantly, academic and parliamentary commentary emphasises there is no central, mandatory declaration of religion for MPs, so counts rely on self-identification or community reporting [2].
2. Established Muslim MPs and their constituencies named in reporting
Several long‑serving MPs repeatedly named across sources include Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow), Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton South East), and Naz Shah (Bradford West), each cited with those constituencies in post‑election coverage [6] [5]. Reporting also lists Khalid Mahmood in Birmingham Perry, Dr Rupa Huq in Ealing Central and Acton, Tulip Siddiq in Hampstead and Kilburn, Rosena Allin‑Khan in Tooting, Mohammad Yasin in Bedford, and Imran Hussain in Bradford East as Muslim MPs with those respective seats [6] [5].
3. Conservative and other party MPs reported as Muslim
Conservative MPs named in the coverage as identifying as Muslim include Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham), Nusrat Ghani (Wealden) and Saqib Bhatti (Meriden), with media accounts listing those constituencies alongside their names [6] [5]. Sources also noted cross‑party variation and that counts include independent MPs who ran with strong community backing in 2024 [4] [1].
4. Newly elected Muslim MPs and firsts highlighted by community outlets
Community and Muslim‑focused outlets reported an influx of new Muslim MPs in 2024 — names mentioned in different reports include new Labour figures and several independents; for example, multiple sources named first‑time Muslim victors and represented constituencies in their lists, while underlining that some counts differ by source [4] [6] [1]. These outlets also celebrated milestones such as increased female Muslim representation and some historic firsts, again tying names to constituencies in event coverage [6].
5. Limits of the available reporting and why official biographies matter
Parliament’s “Find MPs” directory is the authoritative location for an MP’s official biography and constituency, but it does not systematically record or require religious identity, which leaves researchers dependent on MPs’ public statements, community reporting, and secondary lists — a methodological limitation explicitly noted in the sources [3] [2]. Therefore, while multiple credible outlets consistently pair names and seats (examples above), confirmation that each MP “publicly identifies as Muslim” on their official parliamentary biography cannot be asserted from the provided reporting alone [2] [3].
6. What a reader should take away
The available coverage documents a clear increase in MPs described as Muslim and repeatedly names specific individuals with their constituencies — Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow), Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton South East), Naz Shah (Bradford West), Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham), Nusrat Ghani (Wealden), Saqib Bhatti (Meriden), Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton), Tulip Siddiq (Hampstead and Kilburn), Rosena Allin‑Khan (Tooting), Mohammad Yasin (Bedford), Imran Hussain (Bradford East) among those cited — but a definitive list tied to each MP’s official parliamentary biography was not available in the supplied sources, so cross‑checking individual MP pages on Parliament.uk is required for formal verification [6] [5] [3] [2].