is the Labour MP for Newcastle upon , having first been elected to in 2010. She was elected in 2019 with a majority of 12,278.
She currently serves as the shadow minister for science, research and innovation, having been appointed to the role as part of Keir Starmer’s September 2023 reshuffle.
is the most ethnically diverse of the Newcastle seats and also contains a large student population. An urban city seat in the this has long been safe territory for the . In the 2019 General Election it was the first constituency to officially declare its result.
was appointed as for , Research and Digital in April 2020. She previously served as for under between 2016 and 2020.
Born in 1965 in Wallsend, Onwurah attended Kenton Comprehensive School in Newcastle. She was elected the school’s ‘MP’ in mock elections aged 17.
Onwurah was then educated at gaining a degree in Electrical . In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Life Scientific programme she described Imperial in the 1980s as “very male, very racist and very sexist”.
Onwurah also holds an MBA from . She has campaigned for more engineers to enter parliament.
Onwurah previously worked in telecoms and software. She was a Partner in , a technology consultancy that developed mobile phone infrastructure in Nigeria and . Previously she was Director of with Teligent, a Global Wireless Local Loop operator and Director of at GTS. She has also worked for Cable & Wireless and Nortel as , Project and Product Manager in the UK and France
Prior to becoming a , Chi was Head of Telecoms Technology at the regulator, OFCOM.
She once described as a far more gender balanced working environment than her previous experiences in .
Chi supported in his 2016 challenge to for the Labour leadership. She supported Emily Thornberry in the 2020 Labour leadership election.
For many years, she was on the board of the Anti Apartheid Movement. She is a long standing fan of . In 2021 she expressed concern about the Saudi backed take-over of the club.
is Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Internet, Communications, and Technology; Jazz Appreciation; Open Banking and Payments; Scientific; the Commonwealth; and Space. She is Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Africa; Angola; Creative ; and Inclusion in , Technology, and Maths.
Email: chi.onwurah.mp@.uk
Personal Website: http://chionwurahmp.com
Twitter: @ChiOnwurah
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