page_title: Priti Patel
section_title: Member of Parliament for Witham: 2010–present
hierarchical_section_title: Priti Patel / Parliamentary career / Member of Parliament for Witham: 2010–present
caption_attribution_description: From left to right: Chris Skidmore MP, Dominic Raab MP, James Forsyth of The Spectator, Priti Patel MP and Kwasi Kwarteng MP
context_page_description: Priti Sushil Patel is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for the Home Department since 2019 and the Member of Parliament for Witham since 2010. Patel served as Secretary of State for International Development from 2016 to 2017. A member of the Conservative Party, she is ideologically positioned on the party's right wing and considers herself to be a Thatcherite.
  Patel was born in London to a Ugandan-Indian family. She was educated at Keele University and the University of Essex. Inspired to get involved in politics by Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, she was initially involved with the Referendum Party before switching allegiance to the Conservatives. She worked for the public-relations consultancy firm Weber Shandwick for several years, as part of which she lobbied for the tobacco and alcohol industries. Intending to switch to a political career, she unsuccessfully contested Nottingham North at the 2005 general election. After David Cameron became Conservative leader, he recommended Patel for the party's "A-List" of prospective candidates.
context_section_description: In the 2005 general election, Patel stood as the Conservative candidate for Nottingham North, losing to the incumbent Labour MP Graham Allen. Despite her unsuccessful parliamentary campaign, she was identified as a promising candidate by new party leader David Cameron, and was offered a place on the "A-List" of Conservative prospective parliamentary candidates (PPC). In November 2006, Patel was adopted as the PPC for the notionally safe Conservative seat of Witham—a new constituency in central Essex created after a boundary review—before gaining a majority of 15,196 at the 2010 general election. She was drafted into the Number 10 Policy Unit in October 2013, and was promoted as Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury the following summer.
  Along with fellow Conservative MPs Kwasi Kwarteng, Dominic Raab, Chris Skidmore and Liz Truss, Patel was considered one of the "Class of 2010" who represented the party's "new Right". Together, they co-authored Britannia Unchained, a book published in 2012. This work was critical of levels of workplace productivity in the UK, making the controversial statement that "once they enter the workplace, the British are among the worst idlers in the world". The authors suggested that to change this situation, the UK should reduce the size of the welfare state and seek to emulate the working conditions in countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea rather than those of other European nations. In the same year, Patel was elected on to the executive of the 1922 Committee.
  In October 2014, Patel criticised the plan of the Academies Enterprise Trust to merge the New Rickstones and Maltings Academies, claiming that to do so would be detrimental to school standards. Patel lodged a complaint with the BBC alleging one-sided coverage critical of Narendra Modi on the eve of his victory in 2014 Indian elections. In January 2015, Patel was presented with a "Jewels of Gujarat" award in Ahmedabad, India, and in the city she gave a keynote speech at the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce.
  In the general election of May 2015—a Conservative victory—Patel retained her parliamentary seat with 27,123 votes, increasing her majority by 4,358. During the campaign, she had criticised Labour Party rival John Clarke for referring to her as a "sexy Bond villain" and a "village idiot" on social media; he apologised. After the election, Patel rose to Cabinet-level as Minister of State for Employment in the Department for Work and Pensions, and was sworn of the Privy Council on 14 May 2015.
  In October 2015, a junior employee at the Department for Work and Pensions was dismissed from her role. In response, the employee brought a formal complaint of bullying and harassment against the department, including Patel. In 2017, a settlement was reached for £25,000 after the member of staff threatened to bring a legal claim of bullying, harassment and discrimination on the grounds of race and disability against the department and Patel.
  In December 2015, Patel voted to support Cameron's planned bombing of Islamic State targets in Syria.
caption: Patel on the panel of "Britannia Unchained"
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