Rosena Chantelle Allin-Khan was born in Tooting. Her Polish mother had been a singer in the Polish girl groupFilipinki, who met her father, originally from Pakistan, while the band was on tour in London. After having two children, the couple separated, and Allin-Khan's mother worked at three jobs to support her and her brother. She was educated at Trinity St Mary’s Primary School, Balham, followed by what she has called "a good school", but her disappointing A-level grades, two Es and a U, dashed her hopes of being accepted to study medicine. Instead, she studied medical biochemistry at Brunel University, funding her education through a series of part-time jobs, then was able to study medicine at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, assisted by scholarships.
Allin-Khan was a councillor on Wandsworth Council for Bedford ward in Balham, and served as deputy leader of the council's Labour group. Allin-Khan was selected as the Labour Party candidate for the Tooting constituency, after the seat became vacant in May 2016 due to the sitting MP, Sadiq Khan's resigning the seat, after he had won that year's London mayoral election. Allin-Khan's by-election campaign emphasised her local, working-class roots and Polish-Pakistani heritage. When the election results were announced, Allin-Khan read a tribute to Jo Cox, the Labour MP for Batley and Spen who was murdered on the day of the by-election. She campaigned to remain in the EU during the 2016 Brexit referendum, and later campaigned for a second referendum on the issue. In October 2016, Allin-Khan was appointed Shadow Minister for Sport. While in this position, she pledged to introduce safe standing at football matches in the UK from the 2020/21 season, if Labour won the next election. She further campaigned to have England's semi-final match against Croatia during the 2018 World Cup to be shown on big screens in public, and also claimed that the St George's Flag had become associated with the far-right, stating that the success of England in the World Cup had helped reclaim the flag for the wider population. Allin-Khan retained her seat in the 2017 general election and the 2019 general election. Allin-Khan stood as a candidate in the 2020 Labour Party deputy leadership election. During the campaign, she argued that she would be a unifying candidate, and highlighted her working-class background, and background as a doctor. She ultimately received 77,351 of first preference votes, and 113,858 in the final round, coming second to Angela Rayner. She was appointed as Shadow Minister for Mental Health in Keir Starmer's first shadow cabinet, shadowing Nadine Dorries. Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in the UK, she has been working 12-hour shifts at St George's Hospital in Tooting, as well as her job as an MP and a shadow minister. She also called for more mental health support to NHS staff during the pandemic, stating that there was a "rise in suicides, self-harm and suicidal ideation among frontline NHS and care staff" due to "a lack of PPE, an increased workload... and witnessing more patients die". She also criticised the UK Government for being too slow in acting, saying that it should have brought in measures such as the lockdown and widespread testing sooner.
Personal life
Allin-Khan lives in Tooting with her Welsh husband. She is a Muslim. The couple have two daughters. She is an amateur boxer, training at Balham Boxing Club, where she is the team doctor.
