Shabana Mahmood’s potential as a future cabinet minister was first noticed by the former deputy Labour leader Tom Watson in the 90s over tea and samosas at her family’s end-of-terrace Birmingham home.
Watson, a seasoned fixer, had become a close friend of her father, Mahmood Ahmed, a Labour councillor. When political problems arose, Watson and fellow Labour party organisers would be guided through to comfy sofas in the family sitting room.
He said the group, nearly all middle-aged men, would “start babbling” about the latest ructions and discuss how to negotiate multilayered West Midlands politics involving factions and complex community alliances.
Inevitably, Ahmed would turn towards his daughter who had appeared with a fresh pot of tea. The group soon learned to listen carefully to her suggestions, Watson said.
“Shabana would let them know exactly what to do, and when to do it. She would give them the line, clearly and concisely. She could see a problem and cut through it at a young age,” the peer said.
More than 25 years later, her allies say the same political nous was on display last week when, as lord chancellor, Mahmood forced the Sentencing Council to reverse plans to issue new advice to judges that would have made the ethnicity or faith of an offender a prominent factor when deciding whether to jail them.
In a move that instantly undercut the shadow justice secretary, Robert Jenrick, who had claimed the advice was proof of “two tier” policing, the former barrister told MPs she might “legislate if necessary” to curb the powers of the independent body.
She said: “As someone who is from an ethnic minority background myself, I do not stand for any differential treatment before the law.”
Criticisms have been led by senior black lawyers and judicial campaigners, some of whom believe she has failed to back the independence of the judiciary and deliberately misinterpreted the Sentencing Council’s advice to score political points.
One barrister said his colleagues are furious at what they see as an effort to pander to Reform voters. “She is taking her lead from the Suella Braverman handbook,” he said, in reference to the hard-right former Tory home secretary.
Such digs are unlikely to unsettle Mahmood, who last year fought a bruising general election campaign that resulted in threats and heightened security.
Mahmood was born in September 1980 in Birmingham, one of four siblings at the centre of a large Kashmiri community. Her father, originally from Mirpur, worked as a civil engineer while her mother, Zubaida, ran a corner shop, with both taking a close interest in their children’s education.
Watson said: “Her dad would get home from work and would gather the children around him, cross-legged. They would each be asked to read for five minutes from The Times.” If they did not understand or mispronounced a word, they were told to look it up.
Mahmood went to state schools and read law at Lincoln College, Oxford. She qualified as a barrister, entering parliament in 2010 after becoming the Labour candidate for Birmingham Ladywood after Clare Short’s resignation.
She refused to serve in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet and emerged as a reformer and leading supporter of Labour Together after the 2019 general election defeat to Boris Johnson.
As a result of the escalating conflict in the Middle East, and criticisms over Starmer’s policies towards Israel-Palestine, Mahmood and her family faced intimidation, harassment and threats during the 2024 general election campaign.
She returns to Birmingham most weekends where she shares a house with her sister and lives next door to her parents.
However, it would be a mistake to believe that she fulfils the stereotype of a demure Asian daughter, according to her friend Lucy Powell, the leader of the House of Commons. “Shabana really enjoys a laugh. She has a wicked sense of humour and would probably swear more than other people in the room,” she said.
Since becoming the first Muslim woman and the first Kashmiri to become lord chancellor and justice secretary nine months ago, Mahmood has also led Starmer’s policy to convince the British people that many more criminals should spend less time in prison and instead be rehabilitated in the community.
Less than a week into the job, Mahmood announced the early release of thousands of criminals amid a deepening overcrowding crisis across jails in England and Wales.
Her allies are acutely aware that such policies carry daily jeopardies and possible demands for her resignation if a released prisoner commits a serious crime or a jail riot escalates.
Powell said: “Shabana came in with probably the most tricky sets of issues from day one of anybody around the cabinet table. She’s had to make some very, very big judgment calls from the off.”
If the cabinet could be compared to a football team, Powell, a Manchester City fan, said Mahmood’s role overseeing the criminal justice system is a central part of the defence. “You don’t really get the glory very often. But if you make a mistake, it’s all on you,” she said. “Like Rúben Dias.”
