DUDLEY’S first female MP has graduated from Aston University with a degree in business and management.

Sonia Kumar, who was elected with a majority of 1,900 at the General Election on July 4, was previously a front-line physiotherapist in the NHS.

After leaving Cadbury College, she worked at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Northfield where she is now a foundation trust member.

Having beaten former Tory MP Marco Longhi to take the newly-created seat, which replaced the old Dudley North and Dudley South constituencies, Sonia has was awarded a masters’ degree in business and management at a ceremony at Eastside Rooms, Birmingham, on July 19.

She said: “I am so happy.

“The Prime Minister gave me a day off to graduate. I put my request in quite early on as I knew I was graduating and everyone’s really pleased that I’ve graduated from Aston University with a distinction in MSc business and management.

“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.

“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."

Professor Zoe Radnor, pro vice-chancellor and executive dean for the College of Business and Social Sciences at Aston University, was “delighted to see Sonia graduate”.

She said: “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.

“I look forward to watching her succeed in her new role as an MP, taking the learnings from her time at work and the degree in business and management to serve her constituents in Dudley, the wider West Midlands and the country as a whole.”