Chi Onwurah
Chi Onwurah | |
---|---|
![]() Bola Tinubu and Chi Onwurah
|
|
Shadow Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills | |
Assumed office 18 September 2015 |
|
Leader | Jeremy Corbyn |
Shadow Minister for Culture, Media and Sport | |
Assumed office 18 September 2015 |
|
Leader | Jeremy Corbyn |
Member of Parliament for Newcastle upon Tyne Central |
|
Assumed office 6 May 2010 |
|
Preceded by | Jim Cousins |
Majority | 7,466 (21.9%) |
Personal details | |
Born | Wallsend, Northumberland (now Tyne and Wear), England |
12 April 1965
Nationality | British |
Political party | Labour |
Website | www.chionwurahmp.com |
Chi Onwurah[1] (born 12 April 1965)[2] is a British Labour Party politician, who was elected at the 2010 general election as the Member of Parliament for Newcastle upon Tyne Central, replacing the previous Labour MP Jim Cousins, who decided to step down and left the seat.[3] She is Newcastle's first black MP.[4]
Early life
During the depression of the 1930s, Onwurah’s maternal grandfather was a sheet metal worker in Tyneside shipyards. Her mother grew up in poverty in Garth Heads on Newcastle’s quayside. Her father, from Nigeria, was working as a dentist while he studied at Newcastle Medical School when they met and married in the 1950s.
After Chi was born in Wallsend, Newcastle upon Tyne, in 1965, her family moved to Awka, Nigeria when she was still a baby. Just two years later the Biafra War broke out bringing famine with it, forcing her mother to bring the children back to Newcastle, whilst her father stayed on in the Biafran army.[5]
Onwurah went on to gain a degree in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College London in 1987.[6] She worked in hardware and software development, product management, market development and strategy for a variety of mainly private sector companies in a number of different countries – Britain, France, US, Nigeria and Denmark while studying for an MBA at Manchester Business School.
Prior to becoming an MP she was Head of Telecoms Technology at OFCOM, with a focus on broadband provision.
Political career
Onwurah was very active in the Anti-Apartheid Movement, and spent many years on its National Executive, and that of its successor organisation, ACTSA. She also joined the Advisory Board of the Open University Business School.
She was elected to Parliament in 2010 with a majority of 7466.[7] She described Parliament as a “culture shock" but also said that compared with her engineering background “parliament is the most diverse working environment I’ve ever been in, the most gender balanced”. [8]
Onwurah supported Ed Miliband in the 2010 Labour Party leadership election.[9] Miliband appointed Onwurah as a junior shadow minister for Business, Innovation and Skills on 10 October 2010. In 2013 she was given the role as a Shadow Minister in the Cabinet Office.[7]
In February 2014, Onwurah spoke in a parliamentary debate she had called on gender-specific toy marketing and lent her support to the campaign Let Toys Be Toys, telling the House of Commons:
“Before entering Parliament, I spent two decades as a professional engineer, working across three continents. Regardless of where I was or the size of the company, it was always a predominantly male, or indeed all-male, environment, but it is only when I walk into a toy shop that I feel I am really experiencing gender segregation.”[10]
She later told Kira Cochrane, a reporter for The Guardian, that she believes the limiting of children by gender stereotypes is a serious economic issue, with the proportion of female students on engineering degree courses having fallen from 12% to 8% in the thirty years since she had started studying for one herself. Referring to a shortage of engineers and the UK having "the lowest proportion in Europe of women who are professional engineers" she said "toys are so important and formative, and for me this is about the jobs of the future, about what happens in 10 or 15 years' time. We can't go on with a segregated society."[11]
In the 2015 Labour Party leadership election, Onwurah announced her support for Andy Burnham having originally nominated Jeremy Corbyn to "broaden the debate".[12]
After Jeremy Corbyn won the leadership of the Labour party in September 2015, Onwurah was made Shadow Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills, as well as Culture Media and Sport.[13]
Personal life
Onwurah supports Newcastle United FC.[14]
References
- ↑ The London Gazette: no. 59418. p. 8738. 13 May 2010.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/07/instead-getting-jackanory-i-got-trades-union-congress-chi-onwurah-mp
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Why I'm supporting Ed Miliband Chi Onwurah, 27 July 2010
- ↑ Hansard (5 February 2014). House of Commons debate: ‘Children’s Toys (Gender–specific Marketing)’, col. 138WH. accessdate=29 November 2014
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ I've Made My Choice and It's Andy Burnham New Statesman, 13 August 2015
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ On His Way To Wembley, Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, UK), July 15, 2011 Friday, A; Pg. 22, 358 words, Alastair Craig
External links
- Official website
- Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
- Voting record at Public Whip
- Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by | Member of Parliament for Newcastle upon Tyne Central 2010–present |
Incumbent |
- 1965 births
- Living people
- Labour Party (UK) MPs
- UK MPs 2010–15
- UK MPs 2015–20
- Alumni of Imperial College London
- Alumni of the University of Manchester
- English people of Nigerian descent
- English people of Igbo descent
- Black British politicians
- Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
- Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
- People from Wallsend
- International opponents of apartheid in South Africa