Shahid Malik

Shahid Rafique Malik (شاہد رفیق ملک نے; born 24 November 1967) is a British Labour Party politician, a technology and media industry chairman, a visiting professor, and chairman and adviser to several non-profit organisations.

Malik was born in Burnley, Lancashire, in 1967.

His father Rafique Malik was a district councillor between 1976 and 2006 and a mayor of Burnley, having emigrated from Pakistan in the 1960s.

His mother was a Justice of the Peace.

He attended Barden High School and Burnley Sixth Form Centre before studying Business Studies at the South Bank Polytechnic in London and later attending Durham University.

Malik is one of seven siblings.

Before Parliament, his three main areas of work were in the urban regeneration and development field; the voluntary and community sector; and domestic and international anti-poverty, education, human rights and equalities sectors.

In local/regional regeneration terms, after graduating, Malik initially worked with the East Lancashire Training and Enterprise Council in a business development capacity.

This was followed by roles as General Manager of Kashmir Youth Project Rochdale, Group Chief Executive of the Pakistan Muslim Centre and incorporating the Pakistan Enterprise Centre, Sheffield; Head of Policy and Development at the Greater Nottingham Training and Enterprise Council; and then as Chief Executive of Haringey Regeneration Agency, managing a £150 million development programme.

The organisation was a law enforcement agency under the Race Relations Act 1976 and worked to eliminate racial discrimination across Great Britain.

It has subsequently been subsumed into the Equality and Human Rights Commission EHRC

He served for six years as an Independent Governor of Sheffield Hallam University; and for several years as a member, Queen Mary University Policy Advisory Board and as an Adviser to Middlesex University.

Internationally, Malik served as Vice-Chair of the United Nations body, UNESCO UK, working to engage UK civic society in UNESCO's work in contributing to world peace, security, justice and human rights, by promoting collaboration between nations on educational, scientific, cultural and communications projects.

Following the Good Friday Peace Agreement of 1998, he was appointed by then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Rt Hon Mo Mowlam MP, as an Equality Commissioner for Northern Ireland (1999–2002).

The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland was born out of the 'Good Friday' peace agreement and was charged with dealing with equality issues between Catholics & Protestants, Unionists & Nationalists, and discrimination by race, gender, disability, sexuality and age.

Malik served as the only person from England, Scotland or Wales (Great Britain) to have been appointed a Commissioner in Northern Ireland.

From 1998 to 2002 he was appointed as a Commissioner to the Commission for Racial Equality.

He also served for three years as Chair of the Board of Directors of VONEF (voluntary organisations network for European funding in Yorkshire and the Humber); and served as National Chair of the voluntary sector body Urban Forum (1999–2002) elected annually by the 400 plus member organisations.

The Forum was a respected national regeneration policy network made up of residents and community organisations, to push power to local people in deprived neighbourhoods.

In 2000, Malik was elected as the first non-white member of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party.

Between 2001 and 2005 he also worked as an adviser to Government on Community Cohesion and Neighbourhood Renewal.

He has also been a Fellow of the Institute of Management (FIMgt) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).

In June 2001, Malik was arrested and allegedly beaten by police during racially motivated riots in Burnley.

He said he had been trying to stop the violence and told the BBC he had been arrested by "very hyped-up" police.

"The riot shields were smashed in my face, causing four to five stitches above the eye, a black eye, lacerations to the arm, bruises on the back of the head, on the body and on the legs."

On leaving Burnley General Hospital Malik said: "No recriminations. This incident should not stereotype all police officers".

No charges were brought by Lancashire Police and Malik was offered an apology.

In April 2003, Malik won a public apology and "substantial" libel damages after being wrongly accused of throwing bricks during the riots in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph on 17 January 2002.

Malik's lawyer told the High Court in London: "At the time referred to in the article, he was acting as a mediator and peacemaker in a volatile situation following disturbances in Burnley."

In 2002 he had hoped to be selected in his home town of Burnley where Peter Pike had indicated he was standing down.

However, the National Executive Committee decided that the Constituency Labour Party should have an all-women shortlist.

He then stood for selection in Brent East after Labour lost the 2003 by-election but was left off the shortlist despite having gained the most nominations in the selection process.

In 2004 Malik was selected as the Labour candidate in Dewsbury for the 2005 general election.

His political career began when he became the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dewsbury in 2005 which made him the country’s first British-born Muslim (alongside the current Mayor of London Sadiq Khan) to be elected to the British Parliament.

Malik also served as an international election monitor for the Palestinian Presidential elections in 2005 (and subsequently, as an MP helped monitor the Palestinian Parliamentary elections in January 2006).

He was re-elected each year until 2005 when he stood down after being elected as an MP.

Malik sought selection in several seats including Leeds Central and Tottenham.

In 2007 he became Britain's first Muslim Minister of International Development, and subsequently served as a Justice Minister and Home Office Minister.

In his last Ministerial role at the Department for Communities and Local Government he led the British government's efforts in fighting extremism; overseeing race, faith, and community cohesion; developing The Tames Gateway (the largest development area in Europe); and managing the Fire and Rescue Service Department for Communities and Local Government.

He lost his seat in the House of Commons to Simon Reevell in the 2010 general election following significant (60%) boundary changes.