Nigerian born Kate Osamor has become the fourth Nigerian-born elected member of the British House of Commons after being elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Edmonton in North London on Thursday, May 7, 2015.
Representing the Labour Party who had a generally bad night across the country, Ms Osamor was declared the winner in the north London seat with 25,388 votes. Her closest rival, Gonul Daniels of the Conservative Party ended up with 9,969 votes, making it a comfortable win for Ms Osamor who is a manager of the UKs National Health Service (NHS) .
She joins fellow Labour MPs, Chi Onwurah representing Newcastle Central, who was returned with 19,301 votes and Chuka Umunna who was returned in Streatham with 26,474 votes.
Helen Grant, the sole Nigerian MP in the Conservative Party is still awaiting the results of her election in Maidstone and the Weald.
Ms. Osamor, who has worked for the NHS for 15 years, is a trade union activist, a women’s charity trustee and a member of the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee. Martha Osamor, Ms Osamor’s mother is a former Haringey councillor.
In February this year, Ms Osamor was selected as the Labour Party’s parliamentary candidate for the Edmonton constituency after stiff contest with fellow Nigerian-born Kate Anolue. She made funding the NHS, opposing its fragmentation and standing up to government cuts the centrepiece of her campaign. Despite this victory for the Labour Party in Edmonton, nationwide, the party appears to have had a disastrous result. It is expected to lose about 50 seats in Scotland alone to the Scottish National Party, who now have 56 members of parliament and in England, has made zero net gains against the Conservative Party.
Prime minister David Cameron looks set to be return to Downing Street with a working majority this time as his coalition partners the Liberal Democrats got more or less obliterated. Leading Liberal Democrats like Danny Alexander, Vince Cable, Simon Hughes and Charles Kennedy all lost their seats in what was a disastrous night for the Libdems.
Rumour mills have it that Labour MP, Umunna is likely to be named as the leader of the Labour Party, putting his in pole position for the office of Prime Minister if the Labour Party wins the elections come 2020.
