Zarah Sultana’s political journey began soon after the Cameron-Clegg coalition government tripled university fees in 2010. She was 17 at the time and due to start studying international relations and economics at the University of Birmingham. “I saw politicians appeal to young people for their votes, and then throw it back in their faces,” she recalls. Angered, she joined the free education movement and edged closer to Westminster.
Today, the 28-year-old Labour MP for Coventry South is front and centre of some of the country’s most forward-thinking political movements. As a young socialist in parliament, Sultana has recently helped launch the ‘Enough Is Enough’ campaign, which aims to tackle the cost of living crisis by slashing energy bills, ensuring meaningful pay rises and taxing the rich. Elsewhere, she has joined picket lines up and down Britain in support of underpaid railway workers.
The country might be in turmoil right now, but Sultana seems energised and answers-driven – her solutions are often brave and always radical. In conversation, her passion for the future is unfaltering, a conviction that feels miles away from the stage-managed press tents of her workplace.
Thanks for joining me today, Zarah, it’s
