Feryal Demirci Clark (; ' Demirci; born 6 January 1979) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

(MP) for Enfield North since 2019.

Early life

Clark was born in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

Alevi Alevism or Anatolian Alevism (; tr, Alevilik, ''Anadolu Aleviliği'' or ''Kızılbaşlık''; ; az, Ələvilik) is a local Islamic tradition, whose adherents follow the mystical Alevi Islamic ( ''bāṭenī'') teachings of Haji Bektash Veli, ...

Kurdish parents with roots in Kürecik,

Malatya Province Malatya Province ( tr, ; ku, Parezgêha Meletîyê) is a province of Turkey. It is part of a larger mountainous area. The capital of the province is Malatya. The area of Malatya province is 12,313 km². Malatya Province had a population of ...

. She studied

Bioinformatics Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data, in particular when the data sets are large and complex. As an interdisciplinary field of science, bioinformatics combin ...

at the

University of Exeter , mottoeng = "We Follow the Light" , established = 1838 - St Luke's College1855 - Exeter School of Art1863 - Exeter School of Science 1955 - University of Exeter (received royal charter) , type = Public , ...

Political career

Clark was elected as a councillor for Brownswood ward in the London Borough of Hackney in 2006, representing it until 2014 when she was elected for Hoxton East & Shoreditch ward. She rose to become the Deputy Mayor of Hackney and Cabinet Member for Health, Social Care, Leisure and Parks. As a councillor she has promoted cycling in the Hackney borough. Clark endorsed

Yvette Cooper Yvette Cooper (born 20 March 1969) is a British politician serving as Shadow Home Secretary since 2021, and previously from 2011 to 2015. She served in Gordon Brown's Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2008 to 2009 and Work and Pens ...

during the 2015 leadership election. She was seventh on Labour's London-wide list for the

2016 London Assembly election The 2016 London Assembly election was an election held on 5 May 2016 to elect the members of the London Assembly. It took place on the same day as the London mayoral election and the United Kingdom local elections. Four parties had AMs in the ...

, but was not elected. In October 2019, Clark was selected as the prospective parliamentary candidate for Enfield North, replacing

Joan Ryan Joan Ryan may refer to: * Joan Ryan (actress), American actress and singer * Joan Ryan (politician) Joan Marie Ryan (born 8 September 1955) is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Enfield North from 1997 to 2010 and ...

who had defected to

Change UK The Independent Group for Change, also known as Change UK, was a British centrist, pro-European Union political party, founded in February 2019 and dissolved ten months later, shortly after all its MPs lost their seats in the 2019 general el ...

earlier that year. Clark was elected during the 2019 general election, becoming Labour's first ever Kurdish MP. She made her

maiden speech A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament. Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country. In many Westminster system governments, there is a convention ...

in a Commons debate on Health and Social Care. Clark endorsed

Lisa Nandy Lisa Eva Nandy (born 9 August 1979) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities since 2021. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Wigan since 2010. ...

for Leader of the Labour Party during the 2020 leadership election. She is a supporter of Labour Friends of Israel. In the November 2021 opposition front bench reshuffle, she was appointed Shadow Minister for Primary Care and Patient Safety. In January 2022, Clark called on UK Government to recognize the

Armenian Genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...

. She has said "I was born in south-east Turkey and grew up hearing stories about the horrors faced by the Armenian people in that region. Almost 100 years ago, a whole culture and a whole people were systematically destroyed and had their identity erased in an act of appalling violence. Families were torn apart, with children never seeing their parents again. Some 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children were killed. Vibrant, centuries-old communities were simply wiped off the face of the map."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Feryal Living people 21st-century British women politicians Alumni of the University of Exeter British people of Kurdish descent Councillors in the London Borough of Hackney Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Kurdish Alevis Kurdish politicians Labour Party (UK) councillors Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Turkish emigrants to the United Kingdom UK MPs 2019–present 21st-century English women 21st-century English people 1979 births