Nus Ghani

Ghani was born in Kashmir^[9] on 1 September 1972, the daughter of parents from Azad Kashmir.^[10][11] Ghani was raised in Birmingham, England in a working-class background and educated at Bordesley Green Girls' School. She studied at Birmingham City University, graduating with a BA in government and politics, and later gained a master's degree at Leeds University in international relations.^{[12][13][14][15]}

She was employed by the charities Age UK and Breakthrough Breast Cancer, and later by the BBC World Service.^[16]

Ghani first stood as a parliamentary candidate for Birmingham Ladywood at the 2010 general election, finishing third.^[16]

Following the announcement of sitting MP Charles Hendry's retirement at the next election, Ghani was selected in December 2013 at an open primary in which anyone on the electoral register in Wealden could attend and vote.^[17] The primary attracted nearly 400 residents.^{[18][19][20][21]} In the 2015 general election Ghani became the first female MP to hold the seat, being elected with a majority of 22,967.^[22] In the 2017 general election Ghani won 61.2% of the votes, increasing her majority to 23,628.^[22]

In July 2015, she was appointed as a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee and served until 2017.^[23][12] In 2016, Ghani worked with Barnardo's, the UK's oldest children's charity, to undertake an independent inquiry into harmful child sexual behaviour.^[24]

In July 2017, Ghani was promoted to Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Home Office.^[25] Ghani was involved in producing reports on home affairs, security, hate crime, policing and immigration.^[26] That year, she also chaired the Government's Apprenticeship Diversity Champions Network.^[27]

As a supporter of Brexit, in December 2017 she described Sir John Sawers, the ex-MI6 chief, as providing only "gloom and doom" about Brexit.^[28][15]

In January 2018, Ghani was appointed an Assistant Whip and a Minister within the Department for Transport, including responsibility for shipping. Ghani was the first female Muslim minister to speak from the House of Commons despatch box. During the 2020 British cabinet reshuffle, Ghani was dismissed from government and replaced by Kelly Tolhurst in the Department for Transport. She had earlier been discussed as a contender to oversee the High Speed 2 rail line construction.^[29] While without ministerial office, the MP acted as paid independent chairperson of the supervisory board of the Belfast Maritime Consortium, founded by Artemis Technologies, which attracted some criticism.^[30][31]

Although she voted for the second COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, Ghani was a steering committee member of the lockdown-sceptic COVID Recovery Group, a group of Conservative MPs who opposed the UK government's December 2020 lockdown.^[32]

In September 2020, Ghani "launched an inquiry with the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee exploring how it can look at the UK Uyghur supply chain."^[33] The report outlined a series of recommendations to address the use of Uyghur forced labour in UK business supply chains.^[34] Ghani was instrumental in the cross-party campaign for the introduction of the Genocide Amendment to the Trade Bill.^[35] On 26 March 2021, as a consequence of Ghani's condemnation of the People's Republic of China's treatment of the Uyghurs, it was announced that Ghani was one of five MPs to be sanctioned by China.^[36] The sanctions were condemned by the Prime Minister and led the Foreign Secretary to summon the Chinese ambassador.^[37][38] On 22 April 2021, Ghani tabled a Motion before the House of Commons declaring that Parliament recognises that China is perpetrating genocide and crimes against humanity against the Uyghurs. This motion was passed unanimously.^[39]

As of January 2022, she was a vice-chair of the 1922 Committee.^[40]

In January 2022, Ghani said she was dismissed as a transport minister in 2020 because she was a Muslim. She said that a government whip had told her that, in the Downing Street meeting that decided her removal, her Muslimness was raised as an issue.^[15] The Conservative Chief whip, Mark Spencer, came forward as the person who spoke to Ghani and said the allegations were untrue.^[41] The Justice Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said the allegations were serious and called on Ghani to make a formal complaint in order to allow an investigation to take place.^[42]

On 21 November 2022, Ghani became industry minister, the fourth holder of the post in 2022 and the ninth in four years, succeeding Jackie Doyle-Price.^[43][44] On 26 March 2024, Ghani replaced Leo Docherty as Minister of State for Europe, her previous role being taken by Alan Mak.^[45][46]

For the 2024 general election on 4 July, the Wealden seat's boundaries were redrawn as Sussex Weald, for which Ghani was elected, with a lower majority.^[47] On 23 July 2024 Ghani was elected Deputy Speaker in the House of Commons.^[48]

Ghani married David Wheeldon in 2002 and has one child.^[15][12]

• Official website
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
• Interview, "Nusrat Ghani: “I was expected to marry young and live in social housing. I never expected to be a Member of Parliament"", PoliticsHome 14 June 2018