Daily Facts: Zarah Sultana

Early Life & Education

Born 31 October 1993 in Birmingham to a Muslim family of Pakistani ancestry; raised with three sisters in Lozells.
Attended Holte School, then King Edward VI Handsworth for sixth form. A pivotal trip at age 17 to the West Bank and Jerusalem exposed her to military court proceedings and systems of occupation.
Earned a BA in International Relations & Economics from the University of Birmingham. She joined the Labour Party in 2011, motivated by opposition to tuition fee hikes.

Selected as Labour candidate and elected MP for Coventry South in December 2019, defeating veteran Jim Cunningham.
Became a member, then chair (2020–2025), of the Socialist Campaign Group.
Served as PPS to Shadow International Development Secretary Dan Carden (early 2020) but was removed after Keir Starmer became leader.
Early parliamentary work included supporting a Green New Deal, addressing child hunger, advocating free healthcare, and campaigning for railworkers.

Sultana joined the Independent Alliance, a parliamentary group formed in 2024 with Corbyn and other pro‑Gaza independents. This faction now ranks as the fifth-largest group in the Commons.
The group’s key demands have included ending austerity, scrapping the two-child benefit cap, preserving winter fuel payments, and implementing a full arms embargo on Israel.

Known for her high social media reach, particularly on TikTok (~445k followers), making her one of Parliament’s most followed and also the most abused MP online.
Routinely targeted with Islamophobic and misogynistic threats, prompting protective measures such as logging her location and avoiding travel alone .

Welfare & Inequality
- Suspended in July 2024 after supporting an SNP amendment abolishing the two‑child benefit cap—a move she framed as morally essential to lifting 400k children out of poverty.
- Also rebelled on winter fuel payments, PIP, and other benefit cuts.
Foreign Policy & Gaza
- Vocal critic of UK arms sales to Israel and of Labour’s stance on Gaza.
- Accused the government of “complicity in genocide”, saying the UK is “an active participant”.
- Her proposed party’s foreign policy will emphasize peace and justice over militarism.
Economic Justice

Championed redistribution: opposing billionaire influence, pushing for stronger public services, and critiquing Labour for focusing too much on centrist, market-friendly policies.

Left-wing allies, including John McDonnell and Green politicians, welcomed Sultana’s move as energizing progressive politics; others in Labour, such as Yvette Cooper, disagreed.
Nigel Farage promptly noted the challenge this poses to Keir Starmer, suggesting a shift of voters to a left-wing alternative .
Financial Times and political analysts caution that new left parties historically struggle with organisation and electoral traction, even while current Labour polling weakness offers opportunity.

Vocal critic of UK arms sales to Israel and advocate for a ceasefire in Gaza.
In July 2024, she was one of seven Labour MPs who had the whip withdrawn after supporting an SNP amendment to scrap the two‑child benefit cap; she stated she “slept well” knowing she stood for child poverty relief.
Further tensions over Labour’s Gaza policy led to her resignation from the party in July 2025, announcing plans to co-lead a new left-wing party with Jeremy Corbyn.

3 July 2025: Sultana formally resigned from Labour after 14 years to co‑lead a proposed new left-wing party with Jeremy Corbyn. She invited other independent MPs, activists, and campaigners to join them, framing it as a movement challenging Britain’s “two-party system”.
Corbyn has confirmed discussions are ongoing, without yet committing to formal leadership. Both voices emphasise a platform centred on poverty, inequality, peace (especially Gaza policy), and democratic socialist values.
The plan positions their campaign as a clear contrast: "socialism or barbarism" in the 2029 general election.

Recognized with a Patchwork Foundation MP of the Year Award (2022) for championing marginalized communities.
Ranked 47th on New Statesman’s left-power list in 2023, celebrated for her effective social media outreach.
Honored by Coventry United Women’s FC and others as a role model and community advocate.