Anwara Ali

Background

Ali was born in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and came to the United Kingdom as a young child, where she was educated.

Education

In 1997, Ali graduated with an Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery from Saint Bartholomew"s and Royal London Medical School.

Career

Ali"s parents are the late Jobed Ali, a businessman, and Solima Khatun. Ali is local government councillor and lead Cabinet Member for Adult Health and Wellbeing in Tower Hamlets Council. In 2006, she entered politics as a Labour Party candidate in the Tower Hamlets Council elections.

In February 2010, due to Labour"s failure to reform the National Health Service, Ali defected to the Conservative Party.

However, she failed to get re-elected in the following election in May.

She also works for Tower Hamlets Primary Trust as the lead General Practice for cancer screening. She was chosen to front the National Health Service campaign locally to persuade Bengali-speaking women to sign up to breast screening programmes.

Ali serves on the Government"s Woman Councillors Task Force, which was launched in Admiralty House in Whitehall, London. She also helped to establish the Nisa Association.

Ali is a presenter on Channel South"s Health is Wealth programme, which discusses topical health issues and how to reduce health inequalities, especially in the Bangladeshi community.

Ali was also asked by Tower Hamlets Health Authority to present a series of programmes entitled Communities in Action. Ali is also a columnist for Bangla Mirror and the East London Advertiser.

Achievements

• She won the Bow West seat despite only entering the election eight weeks before the polling date. Ali and her colleagues achieved the biggest swing (156%) to Labour in the whole of London. In 2007, Ali campaigned for Harriet Harman to become deputy leader of the Labour Party, and Harman won.

Politics

She defeated Janet Ludlow, the Liberal Democrat opposition leader in Tower Hamlets, in a seat that had been under the control of the Liberal Democrats for 30 years.

Membership

She is a patron of the Bow Community Association, as well as a founding member of the award-winning Social Action for Health.

Connections

Partner:

Spitalfields Practice