Seema Malhotra

Seema Malhotra MP
Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
In office 13 September 2015 – 26 June 2016
Leader	Jeremy Corbyn
Preceded by	Shabana Mahmood
Succeeded by	Rebecca Long-Bailey
Member of Parliament for Feltham and Heston
Incumbent
Assumed office 15 December 2011
Preceded by	Alan Keen
Majority	15,603 (29.4%)
Personal details
Born	(1972-08-07) 7 August 1972 Hammersmith, London, England
Political party	Labour Co-operative
Spouse(s)	Sushil Saluja (m. 2005)
Alma mater	University of Warwick Aston University
Website	Official website

Seema Malhotra (born 7 August 1972)^[1] is a British Labour and Co-operative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Feltham and Heston since a by-election was held following the death of Alan Keen in 2011.^[2][3][4]

Early career

One of five children- four daughters- of Sushil Kumar Malhotra (1941-2014), of Osterley, a shop owner, formerly a financial adviser and an engineer, by his wife Usha,^[5] she was educated at schools in the London Borough of Hounslow, studied politics and philosophy at the University of Warwick and took a postgraduate degree in business and information studies at Aston University.^[6]

Of Indian descent,^[7] Malhotra is a former management consultant who worked for Accenture and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.^[8] She founded the Fabian Women's Network, and was a previous National Chair of the Young Fabians.^[9]

Malhotra was the Labour candidate for the South West constituency in the 2004 London Assembly elections, coming third with 17% of the vote.

While Labour was in government before 2010, she worked as an adviser to Liam Byrne and Ian Austin when they were regional ministers for the West Midlands. Following Gordon Brown's resignation as Labour leader in the wake of the 2010 general election, she was the special adviser to Harriet Harman during her tenure as Leader of the Labour Party.^[8]

Parliamentary career

Malholtra entered Parliament in December 2011, after securing a majority of 6,203 in the Feltham and Heston by-election.^[8]

In August 2014, Ed Miliband appointed Malhotra to the newly created role of Shadow Minister for Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls.^[10] The role within Labour's Home Affairs team made her responsible for championing the causes of victims of rape, sexual assault, and domestic violence, as well as female genital mutilation, forced marriage, and prostitution and trafficking.

On 13 September 2015, Malhotra was appointed Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury in Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet. On 26 June 2016, Malhotra resigned from the shadow cabinet over Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, along with dozens of other shadow ministers.^[11][12]

Following her resignation, Malhotra formally complained to the Speaker of the House of Commons about aides to Corbyn and McDonnell gaining unauthorised access to her office after her resignation and "harassment" of her staff.^[13] John McDonnell's explanation was that the office was a shadow Treasury team office which Malhotra was moving out of, and his office manager who was a key holder, after seeing boxes outside, went in to check if it was now empty.^[14] After an investigation, the Speaker concluded there was no information which justified regarding the events as a possible breach of Parliamentary privilege.^[13]

Personal life

Malhotra is married to management consultant and financier Sushil Kumar Saluja, who is Accenture’s Senior Managing Director for Financial Services in Europe, Africa, Middle East, and Latin America, and serves on the board of TheCityUK which is an industry body that promotes financial services in the UK.^[7][15] They live in Chelsea, London.^[7]

References

External links

• Her website
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 2010–present
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou