Priti Patel(II)

Priti Patel, DBE, Harrow, London, began life in a Ugandan-Indian immigrant family; her grandparents hailed from Gujarat, India, before moving to Uganda, and her parents later settled in Hertfordshire after emigrating to the UK in the 1960s. Raised in a Hindu household, she attended a comprehensive school in Watford and went on to earn a BA in Economics from Keele University (early-1990s), then completed postgraduate studies in British Government and Politics at the University of Essex. Inspired by Margaret Thatcher, Patel joined the Conservative Party in 1991. In 1995, she shifted briefly from the Conservatives to head the press office of the Referendum Party (1995-1997), before rejoining the Conservative fold under William Hague in 1997, working in his press office.

Moving into the private sector, Patel entered PR: joining Weber Shandwick in 2000, where she stayed for circa three years, including lobbying roles. In 2003, she joined Diageo in corporate relations before returning to Weber Shandwick in 2007 as Director of Corporate & Public Affairs. She first ran for Parliament in 2005, contesting Nottingham North unsuccessfully (winning 18.7% of the vote). David Cameron subsequently named her to the Conservative "A-List" of candidates, and in November 2006, she was adopted for the newly created seat of Witham. Patel was elected MP for Witham in the 2010 general election, winning 52.2% of the vote. As a backbencher, she co-authored After the Coalition (2011) and Britannia Unchained (2012), and became Vice-Chair of Conservative Friends of Israel.

In 2013, she joined the Number 10 Policy Unit, and in July 2014 was appointed Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (serving until May 2015). After the 2015 election, she became Minister of State for Employment (May 2015 - July 2016), earning her place in the Cabinet.

Patel was a leading figure in the Vote Leave campaign leading up to the 2016 Brexit referendum. After the "Leave" victory and David Cameron's resignation, she backed Theresa May and was appointed Secretary of State for International Development in July 2016. In September 2016, she pledged £1.1 billion in aid to fight malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS, introducing performance-based criteria for aid.

However, in November 2017, it emerged she had held undisclosed meetings in Israel during a private holiday, breaching the Ministerial Code. Following media scrutiny and an apology, she resigned on 8 November 2017. Remaining in Parliament, she served as a backbencher through 2018-2019, challenging aspects of Brexit strategy and the government's handling of campaign evidence. In July 2019, Boris Johnson appointed her Home Secretary, making her the first British Indian to hold the post. She retained her seat in Parliament with increased majorities in the 2019 election.

As Home Secretary, she introduced a points-based immigration system (launched January 2021), banned EU ID cards for entry (October 2021), and proposed the controversial Rwanda asylum plan in April 2022. She also courted controversy over protests and cultural issues-criticizing Black Lives Matter demonstrations in June 2020 and calling the gesture of "taking the knee" "dreadful" in February 2021.

Patel resigned as Home Secretary on 6 September 2022, as Liz Truss became Prime Minister, and returned to the backbenches. In June 2023, she was honored as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2022 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours, and had previously been sworn into the Privy Council in May 2015.

Though the Conservatives faced a landslide loss in the 4 July 2024 general election, Patel retained her Witham seat with a majority of 5,145. She declared her candidacy for the 2024 Conservative Party leadership election on 27 July 2024, but was eliminated in the first MP ballot on 9 September 2024. On 4 November 2024, under the new Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, she was appointed Shadow Foreign Secretary.