Shabana Mahmood: justice secretary and rising star of the Labour party

Described as a pragmatic politician with an instinct for the times, Mahmood is thought of by some as a future Labour leader Shabana Mahmood knows what it is like to live in an area where crime feels out of control. While she was growing up in Small Heath in inner-city Birmingham in the 1980s and 90s, her father kept a cricket bat behind the till of the family shop to fend off would-be robbers. Three decades later, Mahmood is Labour’s justice secretary and lord chancellor, tasked with cutting crime at a time when public concern about it is rising.