One of the country’s first female Asian MPs elected in Ladywood

• May. 7 by Katie Fox (0)

Shabana Mahmood has become one of the country’s first female Asian MPs after being elected in the Ladywood constituency yesterday.

Mahmood won the seat previously held by former Labour MP Clare Short with a three percent increase in votes. There was a 2.5% swing in votes from Liberal Democrats to Labour.

In this general election, 22 Asian women stood as candidates for the three main parties (Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats) with Shabana Mahmood being one of the first to be announced as a new MP.

Mahmood found herself up against another female Asian candidate in the Ladywood constituency- Nusrat Ghani of the Conservatives. However, the new Labour MP won the vote with a majority of 10,105 (28.2%).

The Conservative candidate was beaten by Ayoub Khan, the Liberal Democrat candidate, who gained over half as many votes as Ghani.

The results were close between UK Independence Party candidate Christopher Booth and Peter Beck of the Green Party. Beck was just pipped to fourth place with 2.4% of the vote compared with Booth’s 2.5%.

Only 43 votes separated the candidates; however the Green Party candidate gained 2.1% on their 2005 result while the UKIP candidate lost 3%; indicating an increased interest in Green Party policy in the Ladywood constituency.