DR ZUBIR AHMED has forged an extraordinary path to become one of Westminster’s most distinctive new voices – carrying the dual identity of transplant surgeon and parliamentarian into Britain's corridors of power.
The Labour MP for Glasgow South West embodies an increasingly rare political phenomenon: the politician who maintains an active professional life outside politics. As he revealed to LBC in August, “Last week I did a kidney transplant. I, a second-generation Pakistani, was the main surgeon... across the table from me someone from an Irish background; at the top end, the anaesthetist was a second-generation person from the Indian subcontinent; my scrub nurse was Bulgarian.”
This scene offers more than professional detail – it provides the central metaphor for Ahmed's political worldview. In a nation grappling with intense debates around immigration, he positions himself as living proof of integration’s success while championing the essential contributions immigrants make to British life, particularly in healthcare.
“It is no coincidence that the health service was founded in 1948, the same year Empire Windrush came to the shores of Britain,” he has said. “Immigrants have been in the DNA of the NHS from the day it was formed and without them the NHS would be in existential crisis.”
Appointed parliamentary private secretary to health secretary Wes Streeting shortly after entering the parliament, Ahmed hasn’t wasted time making his mark. “I am acutely aware of the difficulties our health system is facing and this vital public service remains close to my heart,” he has said.
The son of a Pakistani cab driver who has never taken a “proper holiday” and was still driving at 84, Ahmed faced direct racism growing up. Politics, he recalled, “defined a lot of things for us when we were young, dealing with the council and MPs when we were getting bricks through our windows and fireworks through our letterboxes for being Asian.”
This history fuels an outspoken stance against political violence, as he observed that the riots that followed the Southport attack last year weren’t about immigration, but “about people who feel alienated from power.”
In December 2024, he secured an adjournment debate on medical aid in conflict zones, driven by his concern for Gaza. He directly questioned the government's approach to holding those blocking aid accountable and ensuring the safety of medical workers.
His credentials are impeccable – medical degrees from Glasgow and University College London, a doctorate from King’s College London, and an MBA from Strathclyde.
For Ahmed, the personal remains political. When he states, “I still believe this is the best place to live for a Muslim, a Pakistani or a Brit than anywhere else. I have no intention of going anywhere and I will continue to bring up my family here,” it's not just personal testimony – it's the core of his political identity as a unifying figure in divided times.
