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Oona King

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Oona Tamsyn King (born October 22, 1967 in Sheffield) is an English politician, and was Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green & Bow from 1997 until the 2005 election. She is a member of the Labour Party. 


Born in 1967 to a Jewish mother (Hazel) and the U.S. born civil rights activist, Preston King (an African-American who became a professor of political science), she was educated in Chalk Farm, London, and joined the Labour Party at the age of 14. She received a joint degree in Politics from the University of York and the University of California, Berkeley. Her husband, Tiberio Santomarco, is from Italy and Ms. King speaks Italian and French, in addition to English. 


Before becoming an MP, King was on the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, and worked as a political assistant to Glyn Ford MEP, the Labour Party Leader in the European Parliament, and later Glenys Kinnock MEP. She was selected to represent the seat of Bethnal Green & Bow in 1995. By winning the seat in 1997, she became only the second black woman to be elected as Member of Parliament, the first being Diane Abbott. She has been selected as one of 100 Great Black Britons for this achievement. In her maiden speech, of July 5 1997, she highlighted the influence that her and her parents' ethnic background had:


"For me, racism is not an academic point. My father is black and my mother is Jewish. As a child in Newcastle, my mother was lined up against a wall and stoned because, as her schoolmates put it, she, as a Jew, was responsible for the death of their Lord... I have also been called names such as yid, nigger, wog, half-caste and mongrel. Those are unparliamentary terms, but I hope that my background can be a bridge between two cultures." 


King supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which was controversial for the constituency's large Muslim population. This led to the RESPECT Coalition's George Galloway, a leader of the Stop the War Coalition, standing against her at the 2005 general election. This challenge was one of the media highlights of the election [link]. The targeting of King and the choice of Bethnal Green by the Respect Party aroused controversy.


King narrowly lost the seat to Galloway. The campaign was beset by tensions and scuffles; she was allegedly targeted by Anti-war protesters who slashed the tyres on her car, pelted her with eggs and vegetables and made threats. There were accusations of both Islamophobia and anti-semitism. Both she and Galloway were forced to request police protection. Together with Galloway, she made a plea for calm and restraint amongst local people during the campaign, though she said "I have to say it has not been helped by some of the language used by Respect. Extremism breeds extremism."


King had said of Galloway "What makes me sick is that when I come across someone who is guilty of genocide I do not get on a plane and go to Baghdad and grovel at his feet". Galloway had responded to claims of racism by noting his concern about "the deaths of many people in Iraq with blacker faces than hers". [link]. Galloway's victory was narrow, by 823 votes; a request for a recount of votes by King and her agent was denied by the chief counting official. In Galloway's victory speech he said of her:


"She's an able person who will be back in politics and in Parliament. It wasn't her defeat, it was a defeat for Tony Blair and New Labour. And I'd like to thank Oona King for her eight years in this constituency and wish her well for what will be her resumed political career."


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. However she is now pursuing a career in the media, and has said "I wanted to be an MP all my life, and when it didn't work, I thought, well then, I'll just have to go down a different path." [link] [link]


King's view on the invasion of Iraq has changed since the poor handling of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath by the United States:


''"it shows that America has no grasp whatever on the activity needed to rebuild a destroyed city. And if they can't do that in their own country, then it's obvious why they can't do it in Iraq. So ... I regret that we went to war with a country that has shown itself to be incapable of the very basic actions required to deal with post-conflict reconstruction."


Her aunt is Miriam Stoppard [link].





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