Her paternal grandfather, civil rights activist Clennon Washington King Sr., and his wife had a daughter and seven sons, including her uncle C. B.

[3] King was educated at Haverstock Comprehensive Secondary School on Crogsland Road in Chalk Farm (borough of Camden), London.

She referred to herself as "multi-ethnic", representing "a truly multicultural constituency where hardship and deprivation gave birth to Britain's greatest social reforms."

She described William Beveridge and Clement Attlee as "surrounded by an East End infant mortality rate of 55%" and said this led to social reforms, including the NHS.

"[18] She had said in September 2005, after seeing how poorly the United States had handled the crisis of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath in New Orleans, that: it shows that America has no grasp whatever on the activity needed to rebuild a destroyed city.

[2]Bethnal Green and Bow, with a population of approximately 45,000 Muslim residents, was seen as George Galloway's best chance to defeat a Labour candidate in what became a "bitter single issue campaign" over King's support for the Iraq War.

[21] King said that, whilst her support for the war in Iraq had been a major issue, false claims in the Bangladeshi press that she wanted to get rid of halal meat had played a part in her defeat.

[20] King had said that she would remain in Bethnal Green and Bow with her constituency office funded from the GMB trade union, attempting to act as an unofficial MP.

[23] In 2008, Prime Minister Gordon Brown appointed her to act as his Senior Policy Adviser on Equalities and Diversity and Faith.

[27] In 2010, King unsuccessfully challenged Ken Livingstone for the Labour Party nomination in the 2012 election for Mayor of London.

[28] King's first campaign speech, at Haverstock school, focused on "engagement with young people" as a way of reducing knife crime and helping them achieve their potential.

[4] Her opponent, Ken Livingstone, accused her of using inappropriate methods of obtaining email addresses of Labour Party supporters; King denied the allegation.

When her appointment was announced in November 2010, she resigned as a constituency representative to the Labour National Executive Committee, to which she had recently been elected, before attending her first meeting.

She hosted a BBC Two documentary on Martin Luther King Jr. and the deep South entitled American Prophet,[40] aired on 29 March 2008.