LABOUR party’s leading politician Seema Malhotra is currently serving as Shadow Minister for Business and Consumers. She is in this role since May 2021, after having spent a year as Shadow Employment Minister.
Four years earlier she resigned as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury in the wake of the EU referendum when she called on Jeremy Corbyn to resign as Labour leader. Previously she was Shadow Home Office minister for four months.
Malhotra is the Member of Parliament for Feltham and Heston since more than than a decade; its the constituency where she grew up and went to school. A management consultant who has worked for Accenture and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, she had won the by-election in Feltham and Heston in December 2011 following the death of Alan Keen. She has been holding her position firmly since then.
While employment and economy remain her core concern, issues pertaining to financial inclusion, progress and opportunities for women are also close to her heart.
As a freelance business and public services adviser, she has worked with a range of government departments, including Revenue and Customs, Ministry of Justice and the Home Office. She led the cross-Government programme Increasing Diversity in Public Appointments working with Whitehall, head hunters, business and community groups.
Malhotra is also the co-founder and Director of the Fabian Womens Network and a former National Chair of the Fabian Society. She also founded the charity Hounslow’s Promise in 2018 to help young people fulfil their potential.
Concerned by the impact of the pandemic on West London and keen to see a green recovery, Malhotra established the London West Innovation District at the end of 2020 in partnership with local business leaders, education establishments and world-renowned academics.
She also served for four years as a member of the influential Exiting the European Union Select Committee and as Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury and continues to keep an interest in economic affairs, how we grow and share prosperity and financial inclusion.
From 2014-2015, she served as Shadow Home Office Minister for Preventing Violence against Women and Girls where she led on Serious Crime Bill for Labour.
Prior to entering Parliament, Malhotra was an advisor working with the video game and film industries on issues of child safety. She also has worked across Whitehall with justice agencies and creative industries.
Malhotra is a vice chair of the APPG on the Future of Aviation and All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Assistive Technology.
She chairs the APPG on Entrepreneurship and co-chairs the APPG on Mortgage Prisoners and a Commissioner for the Financial Inclusion Commission.
Born in 1972 in Hammersmith in a Hindu family, 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,
She is married to management consultant and financier Sushil Kumar Saluja.
Following Keir Starmer's election as Labour leader in April 2020, Malhotra has been in the front bench in Labour party. She always has been vocal and passionate about widening opportunities for young people.
Active in the Co-operative Party and Unite, Malhotra is an active voice in national media on gender issues, regional and national politics.
