Abena Oppong-Asare
Abena Oppong-Asare (born 8 February 1983) is a British Labour Party politician. She was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Erith and Thamesmead in the 2019 general election. She and Bell Ribeiro-Addy, both elected in the 2019 general election, are the first female British Ghanaian MPs. She was appointed to the Official Opposition frontbench in 2020, becoming Shadow Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury. Early life. Oppong-Asare is of Ghanaian descent and studied Politics with International Relations at the University of Kent, where she also attained a master's degree in International Law  with International Relations. Political career. She is the chair of Labour Women's Network. From 2014 to 2018, she was a Labour Party Councillor for Erith ward on Bexley Council, serving as Deputy Leader of the opposition Labour Group from 2014 to 2016. She has also previously served as a parliamentary assistant and constituency liaison officer, and has advised the shadow minister for Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls, Seema Malhotra. She ran to be the Labour prospective parliamentary candidate in Erith and Thamesmead when the incumbent MP Teresa Pearce announced she would stand down at the next election. On  14 January 2020 she was announced as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the new Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Luke Pollard. On 16 April 2020, Oppong-Asare was announced as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the newly appointed Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Anneliese Dodds. On 16 October 2020, Oppong-Asare was promoted to Shadow Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, replacing Wes Streeting, who was moved to the position of Shadow Minister for Schools following resignations the previous day relating to the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill.