Political career
Mahmood was elected as MP for Birmingham Perry Barr at the 2001 general election with 46.5% of the vote and a majority of 8,753. [3] [4]
In November 2001,an article supportive of the war in Afghanistan was published in The Observer under Mahmood's name,headlined "The Five Myths Muslims Must Deny". [5] A few days later however,it was revealed that the article had not in fact been written by Mahmood,but by fellow Labour MP Denis MacShane;Mahmood had agreed to put his name to the article after Lord Ahmed of Rotherham had refused. Mahmood's actions were condemned by Inayat Bunglawala from the Muslim Council of Britain,who said that "[after] Lord Ahmed refused,MacShane then found Mahmood—universally regarded as being not exactly the brightest spark in parliament—to be a more willing instrument for his scheme". [6]
Mahmood absented himself from the 18 March 2003 vote in which the Commons called for the invasion of Iraq,but in 25 November 2002 had voted against even requiring a vote in the Commons before the Blair government could invade Iraq. In 2006,he notoriously claimed that those calling for an inquiry into the invasion and the false claims that he and the Blair government had made to justify the invasion were encouraging attacks by Iraqi freedom fighters that purportedly killed civilians. [7]
He was re-elected as MP for Birmingham Perry Barr at the 2005 general election with an increased vote share of 47% and a decreased majority of 7,948. [8] In November 2005 he was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Tony McNulty,then a minister in the Home Office. He resigned in September 2006 along with several colleagues after signing a letter calling for Tony Blair to resign as prime minister. [9]
In May 2009,it was reported,as part of a series of leaked UK MPs expense details,that Mahmood claimed for £1,350 to stay in a five-star west London hotel with his girlfriend. [10] He also claimed more than £35,000 in expenses for food over eight years. [11]
At the 2010 general election,Mahmood was again re-elected,with an increased vote share of 50.3% and an increased majority of 11,908. [12] [13]
Mahmood opposed the decision by Birmingham Metropolitan College in September 2013 to ban students wearing veils. [14]
In January 2015,he was nominated for the Politician of the Year award at the British Muslim Awards. [15]
At the 2015 general election,Mahmood was again re-elected with an increased vote share of 57.4% and an increased majority of 14,828. [16]
He initially supported Brexit in the 2016 European Union membership referendum,but switched his support to Remain just before the vote. [17]
At the snap 2017 general election,Mahmood was again re-elected with an increased vote share of 68.1% and an increased majority of 18,383. [18] [19]
In May 2019,it was reported by the Birmingham Mail that Mahmood was the most expensive Birmingham MP in 2018,claiming £210,183 in expenses. [20]
At the snap 2019 general election,Mahmood was again re-elected,with a decreased vote share of 63.1% and a decreased majority of 15,317. [21] [22]
In December 2019 he announced that he would stand in the 2020 Labour Party deputy leadership election, [23] but pulled out of the contest in January 2020. [24]
In March 2020,Mahmood defended the anti-racist campaigner Trevor Phillips from claims of Islamophobia,saying that Labour had "lost its way" after it had suspended Phillips. Mahmood said that the move to discipline Phillips had brought "disrepute" on the party. [25]
After Keir Starmer in April 2020 became leader of the Labour Party,Mahmood was appointed as Shadow Minister for Defence Procurement. [26]
As of March 2021,Mahmood is a member of seven All-Party Parliamentary Groups,namely the groups for Bahrain,Cyber Security,International Relations,Kuwait,Kyrgyzstan,Sovereign Defence Capability,and Terrorism. [27]
On 13 April 2021, [28] Mahmood resigned from the shadow frontbench,saying that his party had been taken over by "a London-based bourgeoisie,with the support of brigades of woke social media warriors". [29] He later spoke to Spiked about his decision. [30]
Mahmood has always maintained that the Trojan Horse scandal,a conspiracy theory [31] [32] which claimed that Muslims whom he opposed were conspiring to oppose zionism in British schools,involved genuine fears that non-violent extreme Islamist attitudes had infiltrated various Birmingham schools. [33] He contributed an introduction to this effect in the Policy Exchange report into the topic published in December 2022. [34]
In June 2024,Mahmood was reselected as the Labour candidate for Birmingham Perry Barr at the 2024 general election. [35] He was defeated by independent candidate Ayoub Khan. [36]
Mahmood is a member of Unite the Union. [23]
