Dr Rosena Allin-Khan is the Labour Party MP for Tooting, having first been elected to parliament in a by-election on 16 June 2016.

In the 2024 general election, Allin-Khan received 29,209 votes, representing 55.2% of the vote share. The Conservative candidate, Ethan Brooks, came second with 9,722 votes (18.4%), while the Green Party candidate secured 5,672 votes (10.7%). Allin-Khan was elected with a majority of 19,487 votes.

The Tooting constituency is located in South London within the Borough of Wandsworth, covering areas such as Tooting, Earlsfield, Balham, and parts of Wandsworth Common. It is considered a safe Labour seat.

Allin-Khan succeeded Sadiq Khan as the MP for Tooting. Khan’s resignation, to take up the position of mayor of London, triggered the 2016 by-election.

Political Career

Allin-Khan is a member of the panel of chairs (since November 2024). The panel of chairs is made up of MPs chosen by the House of Commons speaker, typically at the beginning of every parliament, to chair public bill committees and other commons general committees. In this capacity, Allin-Khan also chairs debates in Westminster Hall and may also act as temporary chair during a committee of the whole House.

Allin-Khan was one of three Labour MPs stripped of their government trade envoy roles in July 2025 after voting against the government on its flagship welfare bill. The group, which also included Rosena Allin-Khan, Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Mohammad Yasin, lost their positions following the rebellion over the government’s flagship welfare bill.

Allin-Khan served as the trade envoy to South Africa from January to July 2025. Appointed by the trade secretary, envoys are tasked with boosting British exports and attracting foreign investment. An envoy’s duties typically involve leading trade delegations, lobbying host governments on market access issues, and building relationships with overseas businesses.

Allin-Khan served as shadow minister of state for mental health from April 2020 until September 2023. She attended shadow cabinet during this time.

Allin-Khan left the Labour frontbench in September 2023. Reports at the time stated this followed confirmation from the party leadership that the mental health brief would no longer be a shadow cabinet-attending position in Keir Starmer’s reshuffled team.

In her letter of resignation, Allin-Khan wrote: “You [Starmer] made clear that you do not see a space for a mental health portfolio in a Labour cabinet, which is why I told you many weeks ago that I would not be able to continue in this role.

“I am proud of the progress we made together to not only develop mental health policy, but to break down the stigma around mental illness. We have developed some fantastic policies which will undoubtedly change lives.”

Allin-Khan added that the then-Conservative government had created a “mental health crisis” and vowed to continue to “call out the government over the shameful mess they’ve made of Brexit” from the backbenches.

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During the Covid-19 pandemic, while serving as an MP and shadow minister, Allin-Khan undertook shifts as an A&E doctor at St George’s Hospital in Tooting.

As a shadow health minister, Allin-Khan clashed in the commons with Matt Hancock, the then health secretary. In May 2020, she relayed the view of frontline workers that “the government’s lack of testing has cost lives”. Hancock responded by calling on Allin-Khan to mind her “tone”.

Reflecting on the exchange, Allin-Khan posted to social media: “I will respectfully challenge the government – I want our country to succeed. However, I will not ‘watch my tone’ when dozens of NHS and care staff are dying unnecessarily.”

Previously, Allin-Khan served as a shadow minister for culture, media and sport from 2016 to 2020. While in this post, she pledged to introduce safe standing at football matches in the UK from the 2020/21 season. Writing for FourFourTwo magazine, she said: “Safe standing would also improve the matchday experience for those who want to sit but don’t want their view blocked by someone standing in front of them.

“This is about giving fans a proper say.”

In 2020, Allin-Khan stood as a candidate in the Labour Party deputy leadership election. She received 77,351 (16.8%) of first preference votes, and 113,858 (26.1%) in the final round, coming second to Angela Rayner.

Announcing her candidacy, Allin-Khan emphasised that she is a practicing NHS doctor who “knows you cannot simply guess what is wrong with a patient”.

Allin-Khan’s launch statement argued that “you have to listen to the patient’s symptoms and investigate the root causes” – likening this approach to her prospective strategy as deputy Labour leader.

She promised that, as deputy leader, her priority would be to “fight against a far-right Brexit” and ensure that the NHS is not “up for sale” under Boris Johnson’s government.

In an interview with the Sunday Times newspaper, published December 2019, Allin Khan said she would bring a “fresh, non-tribal approach” to the deputy leadership race, and “work very much with the grassroots” if elected to the role.

Allin-Khan served on the international development committee from November 2023 to May 2024.

She is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for birth trauma, emergency care, Europe, patient safety and Poland among others.

Allin-Khan delivered her maiden speech on 12 July 2016 during a debate on the Brexit referendum.

Referencing her predecessor and the referendum result, she said: “I will endeavour to build upon Sadiq’s fine legacy, standing tall for all of Tooting. Sadiq’s shoes are big to fill, but then I have the benefit of much higher heels to help! We share a lot in our histories and our characters: our surname; a love of football; and a keen interest in boxing.

She added: “We have one important difference, though: my dad was not a bus driver. However, my mum did work in the local petrol station, so – who knows? – perhaps Sadiq’s father filled up his bus there…

“We live in a time of insecurity and change without parallel in recent history. Europe is in flux. The middle east is in crisis. The axis of global power is shifting. The old certainties no longer seem so certain.

“It is all too easy to write off calls for international social justice as irrelevant when we ourselves live in such difficult and uncertain times – ‘We have so much to do to sort out our own country; why should we be thinking about responsibilities overseas?’

“That is to misunderstand what social justice is about. It is not simply a goal to be ranked and prioritised in relation to other goals; it is about how we think and who we are.”

Before entering parliament, Allin-Khan served as a Labour councillor for Bedford Ward on Wandsworth Borough Council from 2014 until until 2018.

Political Views

Leadership elections and loyalty

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Allin-Khan was one of 117 Labour MPs who nominated Lucy Powell for the party’s deputy leadership in September 2025. The election followed the resignation of Angela Rayner, who stepped down as deputy prime minister and deputy party leader after an investigation into her tax affairs. It marked the first time since 2007 that Labour had held a deputy leadership contest while in government.

Powell, the former leader of the House of Commons, was seen as a candidate representing the party’s “soft left”; she was support by leading soft left figures including Ed Miliband and Andy Burnham. She secured 117 nominations from the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), above the 80 required, and went on to win the election – defeating Bridget Phillipson with 54.3% of the vote.

Labour leadership 2016: Allin-Khan was one of 162 Labour MPs who nominated Owen Smith for the party’s leadership in July 2016. The election was triggered by a challenge to Jeremy Corbyn following the EU referendum, which led to a wave of shadow cabinet resignations and a vote of no confidence supported by 172 MPs. Smith, the former shadow work and pensions secretary, was ultimately defeated by Corbyn, who won with an increased mandate of 61.8% of the vote.

Brexit and Europe

Brexit referendum: Allin-Khan campaigned for the UK to remain in the European Union in the 2016 referendum, and therefore agreed with a majority of constituents, 74.4% of whom also voted for Remain

Article 50: In February 2017, Allin-Khan voted against the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill. The legislation empowered the prime minister to notify the Council of the European Union of the UK’s intention to withdraw, formally triggering the process set out in Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. MPs supported the bill by 498 votes to 114 at second reading. In voting against the bill, Allin-Khan defied the party whip – one of 47 Labour MPs to do so.

In an article for LabourList at the time, she wrote: “As long as I am MP for Tooting, I will represent the will and interests of its people faithfully and to the best of my abilities…

“The many benefits of the relationship with the EU have not just disappeared. As we work out the future of the UK, we have to fight for what we believe and for our interests. Brexit will change our country, but it doesn’t have to destroy everything great about it.”

Remain pledge: During the 2019 general election campaign, Allin-Khan was one of 193 Labour candidates to sign the anti-Brexit “Remain pledge”, drawn up by the campaign group Remain Labour.

It stated: “Labour is committed to a confirmatory referendum, to give you the final say on Brexit. If elected as your Labour MP, I pledge to campaign to Remain in the EU.”

Welfare

Welfare ‘reasoned amendment’ (June 2025): Allin-Khan was one of the over 120 Labour MPs to sign the reasoned amendment to the government’s flagship welfare bill which aimed to reject the proposed legislation.

The amendment, in the name of senior Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier, objected to the fact that the bill had not been subject to a “formal consultation with disabled people” and that “250,000 people will be pushed into poverty” as a result of it, according to a government impact assessment.

The motion also called on the government to wait for the publication of the review into the Personal Independence Payment (Pip), helmed by minister Sir Stephen Timms, and the independent review, conducted by Sir Charlie Mayfield, into how the employment of disabled people could be boosted.

Welfare vote (July 2025): Allin-Khan went on to vote against the bill at second reading. The vote came after ministers agreed to significant concessions to avoid defeat via a mass rebellion of Labour MPs on 1 July 2025.

Assisted dying

Allin-Khan voted against the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at both second reading (November 2024) and third reading (June 2025).

Foreign policy and security

Trident renewal (2016): Allin-Khan voted in favour of a government motion calling for the renewal of the Trident nuclear deterrent system in July 2016. The motion, which was passed by 472 votes to 117, committed the UK to constructing a new fleet of submarines to carry the nation’s nuclear weapons. Labour was split over the issue with 140 of its 230 MPs going against leader Jeremy Corbyn and backing the motion.

Palestine

Ceasefire vote (November 2023): Allin-Khan was among 56 Labour MPs to vote in favour of a Scottish National Party (SNP) amendment to the King’s Speech in the House of Commons calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in the Israel-Hamas war – defying the instruction set out by the party’s frontbench. Labour had tabled its own motion, making a more moderate appeal for a “humanitarian pause” in the conflict and ordered its representatives to support that stance.

Before Politics

Born in Tooting in 1978, Allin-Khan initially failed her A-levels, receiving two Es and a U. “I remember crying on the phone to my mum and feeling absolutely lost”, she later told the Huffington Post.

Allin-Khan studied medical biochemistry at Brunel University. She later studied medicine via a graduate entry programme at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge University, qualifying as a doctor (MB BChir).

Before entering parliament, she worked as a junior doctor in Accident & Emergency departments at the Royal London Hospital and Homerton University Hospital. She also undertook humanitarian aid work abroad, providing medical assistance in regions including Gaza and Israel, Africa and Asia.

Personal Life

Allin-Khan is married and has two daughters.

Allin-Khan’s parents were both musicians. Her Polish mother had been a singer in the Polish girl group Filipinki, and met her father, originally from Pakistan, while the band was on tour in London.

Allin-Khan told the Sunday Times in 2019: “I grew up in poverty… I know what it is like to feel hungry, to feel cold, to feel there is no opportunity for you, to feel lost.”

Trivia

Allin-Khan is an amateur boxer and is said to train at Balham Boxing Club in Tooting, where she has also acted as the club’s ringside doctor for boxing matches. “[Boxing is] a sport where you can be really ingrained in your community”, Allin-Khan has said.

During the 2019 general election campaign, Allin-Khan recorded a video inspired by the film Love Actually. The video saw the Labour MP try to win over a Conservative voter in her constituency, using cards to share her views, imitating the scene in the film in which Andrew Lincoln’s Mark declares his love for Juliet, played by Keira Knightley.

The video was ultimately copied by Boris Johnson, the incumbent prime minister at the time of the election. “Imitation is the sincerest form of flatter”, she later told Sunday Times.

https://x.com/BorisJohnson/status/1204152954934177792