Uma Kumaran, London’s first-ever Tamil Member of Parliament

In a landslide victory for the Labour Party, Uma Kumaran has been elected as the Member of Parliament for Stratford and Bow, following the General Election which took place on Thursday 4 July 2024.  

The British Tamil, who is of Sri Lankan Tamil heritage, is the first Tamil parliamentarian in London. 

Born in East London, Uma’s family arrived to the UK as refugees, fleeing war and persecution in Sri Lanka. She studied at Queen Mary University and has lived in Stratford, in Maryland and in Bow.

Her early years was spent in Harrow, studying at Bentley Wood High School and St Dominic’s Sixth Form College. Uma ran for election twice in Harrow, the first in 2010 for Pinner South Ward where she received 1535 votes. She tried again in 2015 for Harrow East, home to many Tamil & South Asian communities, where she received 19,911 votes.

She spent most of her working life in public service, from the NHS, to working with the UN and global advocates to tackle climate change, and will continue to help London’s Mayor deliver life-changing policies like free school meals and new council homes.  Her most recent role was Director of Diplomatic Relations for a global climate organisation.

Uma Kumaran of the Labour Party received a total of 19,145 votes, followed by Joe Hudson-small of Green Party, who received a total of 7,511 votes.

Halima Khan, Workers Party, received 3,274 votes, Kane Blackwell, Conservative Party, received 3,114 votes; Nizam Ali, Independent, received 2,380 votes; Jeff Evans, Reform UK, received 2,093 votes; Janey Little, Liberal Democrats, received 1,926 votes; Fiona Lali, Independent, received 1,791 votes; Omar Faruk, Independent, received 1,826 votes; Steve Hedley, Independent, received 375 votes.

There were 287 spoiled ballots. The turnout for the constituency was 54.18%.