Priti Patel

Priti Sushil Patel (born 29 March 1972) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for the Home Department since 2019 and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Witham since 2010. She 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. She was first elected MP for Witham, a Conservative safe seat in Essex, at the 2010 general election, before being re-elected in 2015 and 2017. Under Cameron's government, Patel was appointed Minister of State for Employment and served as vice-chair of the Conservative Friends of Israel. She attracted attention for her socially conservative stances. A longstanding Eurosceptic, Patel was a leading figure in the Vote Leave campaign during the build-up to the 2016 referendum on UK membership of the European Union. Following Cameron's resignation, Patel backed Theresa May as Conservative leader; May subsequently appointed Patel Secretary of State for International Development. In 2017 she was involved in a political scandal involving unauthorised meetings with the Government of Israel, ending her tenure as International Development Secretary. Under Boris Johnson's premiership, she became Home Secretary in 2019, the first ethnic minority woman to hold the office. Patel has been criticised by political opponents for defending the tobacco and alcohol industries, and for advocating threatening the Republic of Ireland with food shortages during Brexit negotiations. Patel said her comments were "taken out of context" and that she did not refer specifically to the risk of food shortages.