Candidates of Nigerian origin were part of those who contested for seats in the parliament at the recently concluded 2024 UK election.
The Labour party which won the majority seat in the parliament had the highest number.
Out of the eight British Nigerians who won their party seats in various constituencies at the elections, six of them are women.
Here are photos of them and their profile.
1. Chi Onwurah
British-Nigerian, Chi Onwurah was re-elected as an MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West under the Labour Party in the 2024 UK election.
Onwurah secured 18,875 votes on July 4 as the Labour Party recorded a landslide win that unseated the Tories.
Born on April 12, 1965, in Wallsend, her father is of Nigerian descent while her mother is from Newcastle. Onwurah was the Shadow Minister for Science, Research, and Digital before her MP appointment.
She has a degree in electrical engineering from Imperial College London with an MBA from Manchester Business School.
Before her foray into politics, she was Head of Telecoms Technology at Ofcom.
2. Taiwo Owatemi
Taiwo Owatemi defended her parliament seat in Coventry North West under the Labour Party polling 19,669 votes to defeat her main rival, Tom Mercer from the Tories, who secured 8,522 votes.
Born on 22 July 1992, she grew up in Plumstead. Having lost her father at age six, her mother, a nurse brought her up alongside her twin and elder brother.
She has a Master’s degree from the University of Kent and has been a Member of Parliament(MP) member since 2019.
Owatemi was Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities from September 2021 to September 2022 and is a member of the Labour Party. Before entering Parliament, she worked as a pharmacist at a cancer unit in Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust.
3. Kemi Badenoch
Kemi Badenoch, a British-Nigerian politician was re-elected as a Conservative Party Member of Parliament winning her seat in North West Essex with 19,360 votes.
Born January 2, 1980, in Wimbledon, London to parents who were medical practitioners, she spent her early childhood in Lagos before returning to the UK at the age of 16.
She has a bachelor’s in Computer Systems Engineering from the University of Sussex and a Master of Engineering (MEng) degree. She also studied Law part-time at Birkbeck, University of London.
Badenoch worked in the IT sector at different times as a software engineer and systems analyst before pursuing a career in consultancy and financial services.
She journeyed into politics at 25 when she joined the Conservative Party in 2005 but has been in the UK Parliament as an MP for Saffron Walden since 2017.
4. Kate Osamor
Securing a total of 20,520 votes, Kate Osamor was re-elected Member of Parliament for Edmonton.
Born August 15, 1968, in North London, her mother, Martha Osamor had to work multiple jobs when her father died.
She studied Third World Studies at the University of East London working with The Big Issue newspaper and then the NHS after graduation.
In 2014, Osamor was elected a member of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party. She was Shadow Secretary of State for International Development from 2016 to 2018.
5. Florence Eshalomi
Florence Eshalomi was elected as the MP for the newly created Vauxhall and Camberwell Green constituency with a total of 21, 528 votes. She served as Member of Parliament for Vauxhall from 2019 until the seat’s abolition in 2024.
Born Florence Nosegbe on September 18, 1980, in Birmingham, she is the eldest of three daughters from a single-parent family.
She has a degree in BA Hons in Political & International Studies with Law from Middlesex University. She is also the first member of her family to be a university graduate. Eshalomi was a member of the London Assembly (AM) for Lambeth and Southwark from 2016 to 2021.
6. Helen Grant
Helen Grant held onto her seat as a Conservative representative for Maidstone and Malling constituency formerly (Maidstone and the Weald) by winning 14,146 votes. She was first elected in 2010 and has served in the parliament since then.
Born in Willesden, to a Nigerian father, Dr Julius Okuboye, and an English mother, Dr Gladys Speeding. Her mother, a nurse got pregnant for her father who was a surgeon at the hospital she worked at. She was raised in a single-parent dynamic after her parents’ separation.
She became a parliamentary candidate in 2006 beginning her career in politics. Consequently, she was selected as the prospective candidate for Maidstone and the Weald in January 2008 and the Conservative MP at the 2010 elections. Her victory made her the Conservative Party’s first black woman MP.