New MP given day off Parliament for graduation

Sonia Kumar said she had put in a request for leave soon after being elected

The new MP for Dudley has been given a day off parliamentary duties to graduate.

Sonia Kumar, a former NHS physiotherapist, was awarded her MSc in business and management by Aston University, Birmingham on 19 July.

She was elected for Labour earlier this month, beating the previous Conservative MP Marco Longhi by 1,900 votes.

Ms Kumar is the constituency's first female MP and said she hoped to use the strategic and operational business skills she had studied to help her represent Dudley.

"I am so happy," she said. "The Prime Minister gave me a day off to graduate."

She said she put her request in "quite early on" and her new colleagues were "really pleased" about her academic success.

"As a new MP, I’ve been doing a lot of networking and getting to understand other people's perspectives over the last couple of weeks," she added.

"I want to encourage future students to be a glass ceiling breakers. There is nothing you can't achieve if you put your mind to it. Push boundaries and just keep going."

The university's Pro Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean Zoe Radnor said she was "delighted" to see her graduate.

"She is an inspiration to other students for her work as NHS physiotherapist, who has dedicated her working life to treating local patients and now as a MP serving the community," she said.