Rupa Huq was born on 2 April 1972 in Queen Charlotte's Hospital, Hammersmith,[1] and grew up on Brunswick Road in Ealing.

[5] Huq's father was training to become an actuary for Prudential, but gave that up to open an Indian restaurant in Soho, London.

[13][14] From September 2004 until 2015,[15] Huq was a senior lecturer in Sociology and Criminology at Kingston University[8] in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

[16] Huq has contributed to Tribune, The Guardian, New Statesman, Progress magazine[17] and The Times Higher Education Supplement.

[15] In 2010, Huq was one of three Labour candidates standing for a council seat in Walpole in the constituency of Ealing, but failed to be elected.

[24] In November 2013, Huq was chosen by Labour as their prospective parliamentary candidate for Ealing Central and Acton at the next general election.

[35][36][37] In October 2016, Huq was appointed as a member of the Shadow Home Affairs team in the Labour Party's frontbench in Parliament.

[38] Huq led from the frontbench on the bill before the House of Commons to equalise Civil Partnerships to include heterosexual couples.

[39] In April 2017, the Green Party decided not to contest her seat in the next general election, commenting, "By and large we quite like Rupa.

She has made quite prominent statements on proportional representation and Heathrow, as well as climate change and environmental issues in regards to Brexit.

"[40] In May 2017, Vince Cable commented how he gave Huq a lift home from a joint speaking engagement, saying, "We talked for a couple of hours, and it was very clear that on almost every issue our views were almost identical.

[53][54] She supported Owen Smith in his unsuccessful attempt to replace Jeremy Corbyn in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election.

[56] In April 2016, Huq defended suspended Labour MP Naz Shah during an interview on BBC's Today programme by comparing "alleged anti-Semitic" posts about Israel shared by Shah on social media to a photo Huq shared of Boris Johnson on a zip-wire next to Barack Obama.

Similar packages were received by fellow Labour MPs Mohammad Yasin, Rushanara Ali and Afzal Khan.

[64][65] In May 2018, Huq told colleagues in Westminster Hall[66] that BAME MPs regularly have their access to the House of Commons estate questioned.

"[66] In June 2019, Huq was the subject of formal complaints to the Labour Party by two former employees for alleged anti-Semitic behaviour.

[70] Labour's Deputy Leader Angela Rayner called on Huq to apologise, describing her comments as "unacceptable".

In 2022, Huq opposed the construction of a 26-storey mixed-use building, which included 477 homes (half of which were affordable housing), near the Ealing Broadway train station in London.

"[83] Ahead of local elections, Huq said that people do not want to live in flats and that "the skyline will be ruined forever.

[85] In February, in a personal film for the Daily Politics series, Huq said it was "dangerous to deny that these things Blair–Brown administrations, or the post-war Labour government which brought in the welfare state and National Health Service ever happened" and she argued there was a pro-Conservative bias to what was being taught with a risk of "brainwashing our kids".