Meet Layla Moran, UK’s first MP of Palestinian heritage

London: In General Election, Britain elected its first Member of Parliament (MP) of Palestinian heritage. Ms. Layla Moran unseated Conservative’s Nicola Blackwood, former MP for Oxford West and Abingdon. She won the election by only 816. She gained 26,252 votes.

According to the news published in Middleeastmonitor, Ms. Moran is the only MP to overturn a seat in her country.

It is also reported that before the election, she used to say, “My Palestinian background has made me interested at a global level. Politics was always at the dinner table, it primed me to engage.

It may be mentioned that Moran’s father is a British national and her mother is from Palestine. As her father is an EU ambassador, she grew up in Belgium, Greece, Ethiopia and Jordan. She is a graduate in physics from Imperial College London, can speak French, Arabic, Spanish and Greek. Talking to The New Arab, she said, “De facto, I will be a representative of our community in parliament, and it will be a great honour which I take humbly”.

Great-grandfather of Moran, Wasif Jawhariyyeh, wrote his memoirs of Palestinian life under the Ottoman and British rule. He left Palestine after the State of Israel was created.

Meanwhile, Muslim Council of Britain said that the votes of Muslim Community made a difference in UK election, Caravandaily reported.