Oona King is only the second black woman to be elected as Member of (British) Parliament

Oona King was born in Sheffield, England to a Jewish mother and African American father, Preston King. In 1997 she went on to become the 2nd black woman in Britain voted to Parliament. Last year Oona King became the head of diversity at Britain’s television Channel 4. In 2007 she wrote The Oona King Diaries: House Music.

She joined the Labour Party in 1971 as a teenager and went on to serve on the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, and as an assistant to Glyn Ford MEP and and Glenys Kinnock MEP. in 1997 King was chosen to represent the seat of Bethnal Green & Bow.

In 2003 King supported the war in Iraq which led to her loosing her Parliamentary seat in 2005.