Nadia Whittome was elected as an MP aged only 23
(Picture: London Portrait Photoqrapher-DAV)Nadia Whittome, 26, is a politician and Labour MP for Nottingham East.
She’s made headlines recently after being told to delete a controversial tweet about Prime Minster Rishi Sunak, which suggested his new position “isn’t a win for Asian representation”.
Ms Whittome had also added of Mr Sunak: “He’s a multi-millionaire who, as chancellor, cut taxes on bank profits while overseeing the biggest drop in living standards since 1956.
“Black, white or Asian: if you work for a living, he is not on your side.”
The tweet has since been deleted but not before provoking social media backlash. A spokesman for Sir Keir Starmer has now confirmed she was instructed to remove it.
So who is the Labour MP causing a social media frenzy?
Who is Nadia Whittome?
Ms Whittome is a member of the Labour Party after being elected aged only 23 and becoming the “Baby of the House”.
Apart from being an MP, Ms Whittome is also a member of the Socialist Campaign Group, which is a democratic socialist parliamentary group of Labour MPs.
Whittome’s early life
Born in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, in 1996, Ms Whittome is the daughter of a Punjabi Sikh father who emigrated to the UK from Banga, India.
No stranger to politics, her mother is an Anglo-Indian Catholic solicitor and also a former member of the Labour Party.
Political interest and career
Ms Whittome’s interest in politics was sparked after the “bedroom tax” in 2013 created austerity in her local community.
The tax aimed to help cut public expenditure on housing benefits and also incentivise tenants in oversized homes to relocate into smaller accommodations.
The new law led to major protests in several parts of the UK.
During the 2016 European Union referendum campaign, she worked in the constituency office of MP for North West Durham, Pat Glass.
She then completed an access course at Nottingham College and studied law at the University of Nottingham.
After completing her studies, Ms Whittome worked as a hate crime project worker and carer before her election.
During the pandemic, the MP returned to her former job as a care worker to help with the coronavirus crisis.
Ms Whittome was the subject of debate last year when it came to MP’s substantial salaries.
She admitted that she gives half her salary to charity after it was suggested that MPs should be paid more which Ms Whittmore branded “ludicrous”.
The basic annual salary of a MP in the House of Commons is £84,144, as of April 2022.
Speaking to Yahoo UK last year Ms Whittome said: “It wasn’t for charity; it was always about solidarity for me.”
She added that even after giving away so much of her salary to charity she still earned an impressive salary.
“It’s still a lot of money, I take home £35,000, that’s a lot more than I was ever raised on, it’s still plenty to live on,” she added.
“But the suggestion that £82,000 is not enough for people to live on is just ludicrous.
“It puts us in the top 5% of earners.”
Whittome’s voting history
- Voted against raising welfare benefits in 2022
- Generally voted for more EU integration between 2020–2021
- Voted a mixture of for and against a reduction in spending on welfare benefits between 2021–2022
- Generally voted against an equal number of electors per parliamentary constituency in 2020.
