Rupa Huq

Rupa Asha Huq (; born 2 April 1972) is a British Labour MP, columnist and academic. Elected as the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Ealing Central and Acton at the 2015 general election, she was formerly a senior lecturer in sociology at Kingston University. Early life Huq was born in Queen Charlotte's Hospital, Hammersmith, London, England, and grew up on Brunswick Road, Ealing. Huq's father, Muhammad Huq (also known as Abedul), and mother, Rowshan Ara Huq (also known as Dulali Biswas), moved to Britain in 1962 from East Pakistan (since 1971 Bangladesh). Huq's father came from Maksedpur in Pabna city and her mother from Kuthipara in Pabna city. Huq's father was training to become an actuary for Prudential, but gave that up to open an Indian restaurant in Soho, London. After the recession of the early 1990s, the council did not renew the restaurant's lease so the business folded. He opened another restaurant in Harrow and later retired. She attended Montpelier Primary School in Ealing. In 1980, at the age of eight, Huq was featured in the BBC Schools programme Look and Read when the programme visited the school. For her secondary education she attended the independent girls' school Notting Hill and Ealing High School. In 1993, she graduated with an upper second in Political and Social Sciences and Law from Newnham College, Cambridge, for a BA. In 1999, she completed a PhD in cultural studies with a thesis on youth culture at the University of East London, comparing young people in East London and the Alsace region of France. This included being a post-graduate at Strasbourg II University in France, during which time she also worked at the European Parliament for the Labour Party, shadowing Labour MEP Carole Tongue. In October 2017, Huq told Sky News that she had been sexually harassed by a male MEP at this time.