Faiza Shaheen | |
---|---|
Born | 1982or1983(age 41–42) [1] |
Education | Chingford Church of England Primary School Chingford Foundation School Sir George Monoux College |
Alma mater | St John's College, Oxford University of Manchester |
Political party | Labour |
Spouse | Akin Gazi |
Children | 1 |
Website | Faiza Shaheen |
Faiza Shaheen (born 1982/1983) is a British academic and economist in the field of economic inequality. In 2018, and again in 2022, she was selected to be the prospective parliamentary candidate for Labour for Chingford and Woodford Green. In 2023, her first book, Know Your Place, was published.
Shaheen was born in Whipps Cross University Hospital, Leytonstone, [2] and grew up in Chingford, in East London. [3] Her father was a car mechanic originally from Fiji and her mother was a laboratory technician from Pakistan, where they met. [1] [4] [5] She has a brother and a sister. [5]
She attended Chingford Church of England Primary School, [6] Chingford Foundation School and Sir George Monoux College. [7] Her first job was at Greggs the bakers in Chingford Mount. [2] After reading philosophy, politics and economics at St John's College, Oxford University, [4] Shaheen studied at the University of Manchester, being awarded an MSc in Research Methods & Statistics and a PhD. [8]
Shaheen first worked at the Centre for Urban Policy Studies, University of Manchester. In 2007, she joined the urban policy research charity, Centre for Cities. [9] In 2009, she became senior researcher on economic inequality at the New Economics Foundation.
In 2014, she was appointed head of Inequality and Sustainable Development at charity Save the Children UK. [8] From 2016, she was director of the Centre for Labour and Social Studies (CLASS), a policy think tank originating from the trade union movement. [10] [11] [12]
From 2021-23, Shaheen was the Inequality and Exclusion Program Director at the Center on International Cooperation, New York University. She is a visiting professor in practice at the International Inequalities Institute of the London School of Economics where she teaches the Masters course on inequality. [13] [14] [12]
Shaheen is a regular contributor to debates on television news programmes, including Newsnight and Channel 4 News , and has worked with Channel 4 and the BBC to develop documentaries on inequality. [15] [16] In 2021, she participated with Adam Rutherford in a discussion on inequality and racism on Al Jazeera English. [17]
In 2023, Shaheen's first book, Know Your Place, on social inequality in the UK, was published by Simon and Schuster. Shaheen wrote the book during evenings and weekends while working full-time at the LSE. [18] [19]
Shaheen is a longtime Labour voter and says she has been politicised from an early age. She joined the Labour Party after Jeremy Corbyn became leader in 2015. [5] In 2017, The Guardian identified her as a "rising star" [1] and she was nominated for Woman of the Year at the Asian Achievers Awards and named one of the Top 100 Influencers on the Left. [20] [21] [22] According to one newspaper, she has been compared to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. [23]
Shaheen was selected to be the prospective parliamentary candidate for the Labour Party for Chingford and Woodford Green in July 2018. [24] [4] [25] She has stated that her motivation for standing was the stress her own and other families had suffered as a result of welfare reforms instituted by the constituency’s longstanding Conservative incumbent, Iain Duncan Smith, [4] [26] during his time as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. In the 2019 general election, Shaheen increased Labour’s vote, contrary to the national trend, and garnered the party’s largest ever vote share in the constituency, but lost by a narrow margin. [27] In July 2022, Shaheen was selected to contest the seat again for the Labour Party at the next United Kingdom general election. [28]
Shaheen favours universal childcare, free school meals for primary school children, increased funding for the state education sector including investment in special needs provision and child mental health support, the abolition of university tuition fees, improved local transport links, and the restoration of neighbourhood policing with additional police officers and PCSO’s. [29] Shaheen has been vocal on the urgent need to rebuild the local Whipps Cross Hospital and to expand the NHS workforce to reduce waiting lists and improve provision. [29]
Shaheen advocates action on the climate crisis, supporting efforts to increase investment in greening the UK’s economy and boosting renewable energy. [29] She has been reported as thanking those who toppled the statue of Edward Colston, a 17th century slave trader in Bristol, during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. [30] Shaheen has voiced her objection to the division sown by rightwing weaponisation of the white working class as a separate racial category, stating: "Since when did the working class become white? It's a mythology. It’s as if you’re not allowed to be working class if you’re brown or black... " [18]
Shaheen’s first book, Know Your Place, is part memoir, part polemic. Shaheen describes the work as “a personal and statistical look at how society and the economy are structured, what really defines your life chances and how our current system keeps us locked into an ugly hierarchy.” Supported by copious statistics, Shaheen delves into factors from inherited wealth to class, race, and education to argue that social mobility is “a fairytale” propagated by those with wealth and power as a means to protect their status and privilege. [7]
Shaheen is married to the actor Akin Gazi. [23] They have one son [31] and live in the Chingford and Woodford Green constituency. [32]
Chingford is a town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The centre of Chingford is 9.2 miles (14.8 km) north-east of Charing Cross, with Waltham Abbey to the north, Woodford Green and Buckhurst Hill to the east, Walthamstow to the south, and Edmonton and Enfield to the west.
Sir George Iain Duncan Smith, often referred to by his initials IDS, is a British politician who served as Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2001 to 2003. He was Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2010 to 2016. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Chingford and Woodford Green, formerly Chingford, since 1992.
Woodford Green is an area of Woodford in East London, England, within the London Borough of Redbridge. It adjoins Buckhurst Hill to the north, Woodford Bridge to the east, South Woodford to the south, and Chingford to the west. Epping Forest runs through Woodford Green in the west of the area, 9.4 miles (15.1 km) north-east of Charing Cross.
Ilford North is a constituency created in 1945 and represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Wes Streeting of the Labour Party.
Chingford and Woodford Green is a constituency in North East London represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Sir Iain Duncan Smith of the Conservative Party since its creation in 1997.
Epping was a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament from 1885 to 1974. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
Chingford was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Chingford in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom by the first past the post system.
Ann Pettifor is a British economist who advises governments and organisations. She has published several books. Her work focuses on the global financial system, sovereign debt restructuring, international finance and sustainable development. Pettifor is best known for correctly predicting the financial crisis of 2007–08. She was one of the leaders of the Jubilee 2000 debt cancellation campaign.
Chingford Foundation School is a coeducational state secondary school and sixth form located in Chingford in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is a specialist Humanities College and has been an academy since October 2012.
Woodford is a town in East London, within the London Borough of Redbridge. It is located 9.5 miles (15.3 km) north-east of Charing Cross. Woodford historically formed an ancient parish in the county of Essex. It contained a string of agrarian villages and was part of Epping Forest. From about 1700 onwards, it became a place of residence for affluent people who had business in London; this wealth, together with its elevated position, has led to it being called the Geographical and social high point of East London. Woodford was suburban to London and after being combined with Wanstead in 1934 it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1937. It has formed part of Greater London since 1965 and comprises the neighbourhoods of Woodford Green, Woodford Bridge, Woodford Wells and South Woodford. The area is served by two stations on the Central line of the London Underground: Woodford and South Woodford.
Thomas Piketty is a French economist who is a professor of economics at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, associate chair at the Paris School of Economics and Centennial Professor of Economics in the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics.
Rachel Jane Reeves is a British politician and economist serving as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer since 2021. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Member of Parliament for Leeds West since 2010.
Akin Gazi is a British actor.
The Hall Farm Curve is a disused 500 m (1,600 ft) length of railway line in Walthamstow, East London, that connected Chingford station with Stratford station until the closure of the section of line in September 1968. The track was lifted in 1970.
Jessica Asato is a British Labour Party politician. She was selected in 2012 as the parliamentary candidate for Norwich North at the 2015 general election.
The London Conservatives are the regional party of the Conservative Party that operates in Greater London.
Miatta Nema Fahnbulleh is a Liberian-born British economist. She is the Labour Party's prospective parliamentary candidate for Camberwell and Peckham in the next United Kingdom general election.
Opinion polling for the next United Kingdom general election is being carried out continually by various organisations to gauge voting intention. Most of the polling companies listed are members of the British Polling Council (BPC) and abide by its disclosure rules. The dates for these opinion polls range from the 2019 general election on 12 December to the present day.
Freddy Vachha is a British businessman and a retired academic and politician who was the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from June 2020 to (disputed) April 2021.
The 2024 London mayoral election is due to be held on 2 May 2024 to elect the next mayor of London. It will take place simultaneously with elections to the London Assembly, some local council by-elections in London and regular local elections elsewhere in England and Wales. Following the Elections Act 2022, voting in this election will take place under the first-past-the-post system for the first time, replacing the supplementary vote system.