Priti Patel

Priti Sushil Patel (born 29 March 1972) is a British politician who has been the Shadow Foreign Secretary since 2024. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Witham in Essex since 2010. She was International Development Secretary from 2016 to 2017. In July 2019, Patel became Home Secretary for the Boris Johnson administration. Patel is a member of the Conservative Party. Her ideas and policies are inspired by Margaret Thatcher.

Patel, a Eurosceptic was a strong supporter of the Brexit campaign in 2016. During her time as Home Secretary, Patel was criticized for her handling of immigration issues and for her asylum deal with Rwanda. During her career, she has been accused of breaking the ministerial code several times.

After the resignation of Rishi Sunak as leader of the Conservative Party in July 2024, Patel announced she would run to be the new Tory leader and Leader of the Opposition in the 2024 Conservative Party leadership election. She was eliminated from the election in the first round of voting in early September 2024. In November 2024, she was appointed to the shadow cabinet of Kemi Badenoch as the Shadow Foreign Secretary.

Early life
Patel was born on 29 March 1972 to Sushil and Anjana Patel in London. In the 1960s, her parents emigrated to the United Kingdom and lived in Hertfordshire. She was raised Hindu.

Patel went to study economics at Keele University. She then continued her postgraduate studies in British government and politics at the University of Essex.

Early career
After graduating, Patel became an intern at Conservative Central Office. In 1997, Patel began to work with William Hague in his press office. 

In 2000, Patel left her job at the Conservative Party to work for Weber Shandwick, a PR consulting firm. Patel's job was also to lobby MEPs against EU tobacco regulations. She worked for Weber Shandwick for three years.

In August 2003, the Financial Times (FT) published an article using quotes from Patel talking about the "racist attitudes" in the Conservative Party, and that "there's a lot of bigotry around". Patel later said she meant these words in terms of her being blocked as a party candidate because of her ethnicity.

Political career
In the 2005 UK general election, Patel ran as the Conservative candidate for Nottingham North, losing to the incumbent Labour MP Graham Allen. Patel finished in second place and won 18.7% of the vote. At the 2010 general election, Patel was elected to Parliament as MP for Witham.

In October 2013, Patel was part of the Number 10 Policy Unit, and was promoted as Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury the next summer.

At the 2015 UK general election, Patel was re-elected. During the campaign, she had criticised Labour Party rival John Clarke after he called her a "sexy James Bond villain" and a "village idiot" on social media. After the election, Patel became Minister of State for Employment in the Department for Work and Pensions.

After Prime Minister David Cameron's announcement of a referendum on the UK's continuing membership of the European Union (EU), Patel was see as the "poster girl" for the Vote Leave campaign. Throughout the election, Patel was a strong supporter of Brexit. After Cameron resigned following the referendum, Patel supported Theresa May as his replacement.

Secretary of State for International Development
After becoming Prime Minister in July 2016, May promoted Patel as Secretary of State for International Development. Some people at the department were worried about Patel's appointment, because of her support for Brexit. Patel said that too much UK aid was wasted or spent inappropriately. During her time at the department, she approved £1.1 billion in global aid to be used to fight malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS.

On 3 November 2017, it was revealed that Patel had held meetings in Israel in August 2017 without telling the Foreign Office. It was also reported that, following the meetings, Patel had recommended that the Department for International Development give international aid money to field hospitals run by the Israeli army in the Golan Heights. Many people wanted Patel to resign because they believed she broke the ministerial code. Patel released an apology for her actions after meeting with Prime Minister May. After more information about her meeting became public, Patel resigned on 8 November 2017.

Home Secretary
Patel was appointed Home Secretary by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in July 2019. She is the first British Indian to hold this office. Shortly after her appointment, news reported that Patel began working for a strategic adviser on a salary of £5,000 a month for five hours' work a month, leading people to believe that she had broken the ministerial code for a second time. At the 2019 UK general election, Patel was again re-elected.

In this role, Patel created a points-based immigration system and an asylum deal with Rwanda to fix the English Channel migrant crossings. She also supported the passage of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. Patel also approved the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States. 

In June 2020, Patel said that the public should not take part in the UK protests brought along by the murder of George Floyd in the United States because of the coronavirus outbreak. She criticised Black Lives Matter protestors in Bristol for taking down the statue of Edward Colston. In February 2021, she called the Black Lives Matter protests as "dreadful".

Following the resignation of Johnson and election of Liz Truss as Prime Minister, Patel resigned as Home Secretary on 6 September 2022. Afterwards, Patel was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) on 9 June 2023 as part of the 2022 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours.

Controversies
In February 2020, Patel was criticized for trying to "force out" Sir Philip Rutnam, the most senior civil servant in her department. She was accused of bullying people who worked for her. Rutnam resigned on 29 February. Rutnam alleged that Patel had orchestrated a "vicious" campaign against him. In November 2020, an investigation found evidence that Patel had broken the ministerial code after being accused of bullying in the three government departments in which she had worked under. Patel said that she had "never set out to upset anyone" and that she was "absolutely sorry for anyone that I have upset". She reached a legal settlement with Rutnam in March 2021.

In August 2020, Patel said that many migrants were seeking to cross the English Channel to Britain because they believed that France was a "racist country" where they may be "tortured".

In September 2020, Patel said that Ascension Island, which is more than  from the UK, could be used to build an asylum processing centre.

2024 Conservative leadership election
In the 2024 general election, Patel was re-elected as MP for Witham. She received 18,827 votes - a majority of 5,145. After the resignation of Rishi Sunak as leader of the Conservative Party, she was seen as a likely candidate in the leadership election. Her allies believe she would be able to unify the different wings of the party. Patel announced she would run for Tory leader on 27 July 2024.

On 4 September, Patel was eliminated from the election in the first round of voting, gaining 11.86% of the vote.

Personal life
In 2004, Patel married NASDAQ marketing consultant Alex Sawyer. Together, they have a son.

References

Other websites

 2017 Profile of Patel on BBC Radio Four

Category:1972 births
Category:Living people
Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs
Category:Members of the British House of Commons for English constituencies
Category:Politicians from London
Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Category:Secretaries of State for the Home Department
Category:UK MPs 2010–2015
Category:UK MPs 2015–2017
Category:UK MPs 2017–2019
Category:UK MPs 2019–2024
Category:UK MPs 2024–present