Adnan Hussain (born July 1989) is a British independent politician and solicitor who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the River Ribble, Ribble Valley, east of Preston ...

since

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

. Since September 2024 he has been a member of the Independent Alliance.

Early life

Adnan Hussain was born in

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

. He attended Mansfield High School and graduated with a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

degree from the

University of Central Lancashire The University of Lancashire (previously abbreviated UCLan) is a public university based in the city of Preston, Lancashire, England. It has its roots in ''The Institution For The Diffusion Of Useful Knowledge'', founded in 1828. Previously k ...

Legal and business career

Hussain was admitted as a

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

in August 2022. He is a director at Bank View Solicitors in

, Lancashire. In the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, Hussain has declared shareholdings in multiple property companies and two residential properties in

which provide a rental income of over £10,000 a year.

Parliamentary career

In the 2024 general election, Hussain beat the incumbent Kate Hollern of the Labour Party. Hussain's election campaign focused on the 2024 Israel-Gaza war and was supported by 4BwD, a group of 12 independent

councillor A councillor, alternatively councilman, councilwoman, councilperson, or council member, is someone who sits on, votes in, or is a member of, a council. This is typically an elected representative of an electoral district in a municipal or re ...

s on

Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council is the local authority of Blackburn with Darwen in the ceremonial county of Lancashire, England. Since 1998 it has been a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the functions of a co ...

who had resigned from the Labour Party in opposition to its position on the war. During the campaign, Hussain said he would speak out "against the injustice being inflicted against the people of Gaza.” After his election, he said: "This is for Gaza" and "We are here on the back of a genocide and if that is giving us an opportunity then we must grasp it and use it for the betterment of our communities. He had only decided to stand when the election was called and had previously worked on Kate Hollern's campaigns before 2020. Hussain sponsored the Independent—

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

"Amendment B" to abolish the

two child benefit cap The benefit cap is a UK welfare policy that limits the amount in state benefits that an individual household can claim per year. It was introduced by the Cameron–Clegg coalition government in 2013 as part of the coalition government's wide-r ...

and voted in support of the Scottish National Party's "Amendment D" to abolish the cap. Shortly after the vote, Hussain,

Shockat Adam Shockat Hussain Adam Patel (born November 1972) is a Malawi-born British businessman, optometrist, and independent politician who has served as the Member of Parliament for Leicester South since 2024. In September 2024 he was a founder of the ...

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North (UK Parliament constituency), Islington North since 1983. Now an Independent ...

, Ayoub Khan, and Iqbal Mohamed produced a joint letter decrying the two major parties and stating the need for a caring alternative. Adam and Corbyn had been in discussions with Khan, Hussain, and Mohamed regarding how to impact policy, with Adam stating that the five were "looking at options that would give us more access to the levers of power." On 2 September 2024, Hussain was a founding member of the Independent Alliance parliamentary group.

Personal life

Hussain lives in Wilpshire, Lancashire. He is of Pakistani descent, his paternal grandfather having moved to the UK from

Kharian Kharian ( Punjabi, ), is a city in Gujrat District, as well as the Gujrat Division of the Punjab Province of Pakistan. It is the headquarters of Kharian Tehsil (sub-district). As of 2023 Kharian is the second largest Tehsil in the Gujrat Div ...

in the 1950s.

Controversy

In 2014, Hussain spoke at a pro-Palestine demonstration in Hyde Park, and one in

Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...

. At the demo in Hyde Park, Hussain said "Any man, woman that takes away innocent lives is a

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

. There is no doubt about it. He could be from America, he could be from Israel, or he could be the bloody

ISIS Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

” and "ISIS are terrorists and so are the Israeli government—there is no difference between them". At the demo in Bradford, he spoke at a Free Palestine rally in Bradford when he stated that the 2014 Israel-Gaza War and the

Blockade of the Gaza Strip The restrictions on movement and goods in Gaza imposed by Israel date to the early 1990s. After Hamas took over in 2007, Israel significantly intensified existing movement restrictions and imposed a complete blockade on the movement of good ...

amounted to a

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

against the

Palestinian people Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous ...

. In his speech he said "They let Gaza burn, they hate Gaza... Now let's make Israel burn, let's make Israel burn. We will stop their funding..." and ended the speech with calls for solidarity with the Jewish community, and for harmony between all racial and religious groups. After he won his seat in the

2024 UK general election The 2024 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 4 July 2024 to elect all 650 members of the House of Commons. The opposition Labour Party, led by Keir Starmer, won a landslide victory over the governing Conservative Party unde ...

, ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' reported on his 2014 speeches. Hussain stated that his comments at the Bradford demo were in support of boycotting Israel but that "with the maturity of at least ten years since the speech in question, I'd use my words much more carefully". In ''The Daily Telegraph's'' first article, a spokesman for the British Jewish organisation

Community Security Trust The Community Security Trust (CST) is a British charity whose stated mission is to provide safety, security, and advice to the Jewish community in the UK. It provides advice, training, representation and research. Founding and mission The Commun ...

compared his comments with the actions of

Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...

and

Hezbollah Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. I ...

, saying "parts of Israel literally burning at the hands of Hamas terrorists and under Hezbollah rocket bombardments shows just what this slogan means in practice".

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hussain, Adnan 1989 births Living people Alumni of the University of Central Lancashire British activists for Palestinian solidarity British Muslim activists English Muslims English people of Pakistani descent English solicitors Independent members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom UK MPs 2024–present