Ali Milani (; born July 1994) is a British author, political commentator, and Labour Party politician. In 2019, he unsuccessfully stood as the party's candidate in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, a seat held by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. He was a councillor for Heathrow Villages in the London Borough of Hillingdon from 2018 to 2022. Milani has previously served as a Vice President of the National Union of Students.
Milani was born in Tehran, Iran, and moved to the UK at the age of five. He studied International Relations at Brunel University London, where he was President of the Union of Brunel Students from 2015 until 2017. In 2017, Milani became the Vice President for Union Development at the National Union of Students (NUS), and he was re-elected in 2018.
Milani became a local councillor in Hillingdon in 2018 and was chosen in September as the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Uxbridge and South Ruislip. He stood against Johnson in 2019 and lost, with a 37.6% vote share compared to Johnson's 52.6%. Al Jazeera have reported that Milani's views "tilt heavily to the Labour Party's left" and Vice have stated that Milani is affiliated with the grassroots left-wing movement Momentum.
In 2022, Milani published The Unlikely Candidate, which covered his experience as a political candidate and commentary on the British political system. The Speaker described the book as "both a cautionary tale and a message of hope."
Early and personal life
Milani was born in July 1994 in Tehran, the Iranian capital. He moved to the UK with his family at the age of five, living in Hillingdon in London. Unable to speak any English when he arrived, Milani lived with his sister and their single mother in a council house and attended a Voluntary Aided comprehensive school, St Augustine's Church of England High School. The family received state benefits and were impacted by the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government scrapping the Education Maintenance Allowance scheme in England in 2011. Milani's mother was once homeless. Milani joined the Labour Party at the age of nineteen. As of 2019, Milani's sister taught at their former school and his mother lived on disability benefits. Milani is a practising Muslim and attends Friday prayers at Brunel University London.
Milani's father, Hassan, was diagnosed with COVID-19 whilst overseas in Iran, and died in the early morning of 21 March 2020. Following this, Milani spoke out against sanctions on Iran. A coronavirus relief fundraiser, Water for Life, was founded in Hassan's name.
University and students' unions
Ali Milani studied International Relations at the Brunel University London. Whilst at university, he was elected President of the Union of Brunel Students, a role he held between 2015 and 2017. His campaign slogan was "Making Brunel work for us". He later said, in a 2017 BuzzFeed News article, that the "election campaign was one of the worst I had to go through, with all sorts of different abuse". He said attack posters were made of his face superimposed on images from the September 11 attacks, and texts were sent falsely claiming that he would shut down the bar. He referred to a "huge unspoken-about fear among Muslim students" in getting involved with student politics but said that "We will break down these barriers".
As president, Milani gave statements criticising Brunel for commercialising student accommodation, claiming that the "vast chunk" of a student loan goes to accommodation, requiring many students to work "15 to 20 hours per week". Milani said that universities "know they can" charge the amounts they do for accommodation "because the students have no choice". He also wrote that the tripling of student tuition fees to £9,000 per year caused a "psychological and cultural impact" as well as adverse economic effects, in response to a report that student wellbeing was decreasing.
Milani was also involved in the organisation of a walkout against media personality and Sun columnist Katie Hopkins. As Hopkins began speaking at a university debate, 50% of the audience turned their backs on her and left. Milani commented that "we expressed our concerns that she has no academic credibility and contributes nothing to the debate", saying that "our students find [some of her views] offensive". He said of the decision to organise a walkout that "Ms Hopkins has the right to speak, but we also have the right to express our discontent". Following the event, Milani wrote a blog article for The Huffington Post entitled "Our Students Were Right to Walk Out – Brunel Is Better Than Katie Hopkins".