Priti Patel

Priti Patel
Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury
Incumbent
Assumed office 15 July 2014
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	David Gauke
Member of Parliament for Witham
Incumbent
Assumed office 6 May 2010
Preceded by	Constituency created
Majority	15,196 (32.4%)
Personal details
Born	(1972-03-29) 29 March 1972 London, England
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Alex Sawyer
Children	Freddie
Alma mater	Keele University

Priti Patel MP (born 29 March 1972) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Witham constituency in Essex since 2010.

Early life

Patel was born in London, England,^[1] on 29 March 1972,^[2] She grew up in South Harrow and Ruislip. Her parents were Ugandan immigrants of Gujarati origin who came to Britain in the 1960s, departing Uganda shortly before Idi Amin announced the expulsion of Ugandan Asians.^[3] They set up a series of newsagents in London and the south-east of England.^[4]

Patel attended Watford Grammar School for Girls in Watford,^[5] before studying economics at Keele University, completing her postgraduate studies at the University of Essex.^[6] She joined the Conservative Party during the time John Major was Prime Minister.^[3]

Early political career

After graduating, Patel was given a job by Andrew Lansley (then a Head of the Conservative Research Department) at Conservative Central Office. From 1995 to 1997, she headed the press office for the Referendum Party which polled over 800,000 votes in the 1997 general election.

After the 1997 general election, the Conservative Party changed from having criteria before entering the Euro to asserting they now would only join the currency if there was a referendum on the issue. Patel then left the Referendum Party and rejoined the Conservative Party having been given a post to work for the new leader William Hague in his press office, dealing with media relations in London and the South East.

Following an article in the Financial Times in August 2003,^[7][8] where she stated that racist attitudes persisted in the Conservative Party ("Racist attitudes do persist within the party.... There's a lot of bigotry around."), she wrote to the FT^[9] to complain that the article misinterpreted her comments in implying that she had been blocked as a candidate for the party because of her ethnicity.

She then left her post to work for Weber Shandwick, a public relations consultancy, advising major companies.^[10] In the 2005 general election, she stood as the Conservative candidate for Nottingham North, losing in a landslide result to its long-standing Labour MP Graham Allen by 5,671 votes (18.7%) to 17,842 votes (58.7%).^[11]

During her work at Weber Shandwick, she lobbied on behalf of British American Tobacco for several years, with a memo from their company showing that she was employed to "provide strategic advice on the account with a particular focus on the Conservative Party", billing the company for over £20,000 per month. This led to criticism of her later stance as an MP against policies like plain packaging for cigarettes, due to claims of an undeclared conflict of interest.^[12]

There are suggestions that she may have worked on ‘Project Sunrise’,^[13] which "laid out an explicit divide-and-conquer strategy against the tobacco control movement."^[14] In November 2000, Patel was part of a strategy group looking at how BAT could influence the outcome of the World Health Organisation’s negotiations on developing the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.^[15]

Patel then moved to Diageo, a British multinational alcoholic beverages company and worked in the corporate relations team between 2003-2007, shaping "a global strategy on responsible drinking" according to PRWeek. On her re-appointment to Weber Shandwick in 2007 Patel was reported as having been in the Corporate Relations team at Diageo Plc, where she "worked on international public policy issues related to the wider impact of alcohol in society."^[16] Other sources however named her as Diageo’s Corporate Relations Director.

Member of Parliament

Patel was placed on the "A-List" of Conservative Party candidates before the 2010 general election.^[17]

On 20 November 2006, she was adopted as the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the notionally safe Conservative seat of Witham, a new constituency in central Essex created after a boundary review.^[18][19] Patel was elected in the 2010 general election, with a majority of 15,196 votes. Patel is on the right wing of the Conservative Party and has been described as a "modern-day Norman Tebbit"^[20][21] and is an officer of the Conservative Friends of Israel group.^[22]

She has taken robust stances on crime and caused controversy when she argued for the restoration of capital punishment on the BBC's Question Time in September 2011.^[23] She also opposes prisoner voting. Kelvin MacKenzie has suggested she would make a good Home Secretary, as "the country would know bad guys would be going away for a hell of a long time."^[24] She has also opposed allowing Jeremy Bamber, whose murders occurred in her constituency, access to media to protest his innocence.^[25]

In August 2012, Patel co-authored Britannia Unchained. In the book the authors criticise British workers, claiming that: "Once they enter the workplace, the British are among the worst idlers in the world".^[26] When contacted by journalists about her contributions to the book, Patel refused to discuss the subject.^[27]

Patel has been criticised for raising issues in parliament related to her time working for the tobacco and alcohol industry.^[28] As a parliamentarian, Patel has remained very supportive of tobacco industry positions. In October 2010, she voted for the smoking ban to be overturned. In December 2010, she signed a letter demanding that plain packaging for cigarettes be reconsidered. Patel has also campaigned with the drinks industry, holding a reception in parliament for the Call Time On Duty Campaign, which campaigned for the end of the alcohol duty escalator and is supported the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, the Scotch Whisky Association and the TaxPayers' Alliance.^[29] Patel was also criticised for taking a £2,000 donation from a tobacco and drinks distribution business.^[30] In July 2014 she was appointed Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, a role that includes overseeing excise duties on alcohol.

In June 2014, Patel lodged a complaint to the BBC alleging one-sided coverage that was critical of Narendra Modi on the eve of his victory in Indian elections, 2014 on 16 May.^[31][32] On January 6, 2015, Patel was honoured by Chandmal Kumawat, Chairman of Maneesh Media Group as a proud personality of Jewels of Gujarat: Leading Global Gujarati Personalities.^[33] Patel joined the Number 10 Policy Unit in October 2013.^[34] In July 2014, she was promoted to become Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury.^[1]

Personal life

In July 2004, Patel married Alex Sawyer. They have a son, Freddie, born in August 2008.^[35]

References

External links

• Priti Patel MP official constituency website
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Current session contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Electoral history and profile at The Guardian
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
• Profile at Westminster Parliamentary Record
• Profile at BBC News Democracy Live
• NRI Priti Patel has been nominated as an official MP candidate by Tory Party, NRIpress, 29 December 2004
• Maneesh Media Honours Priti Patel

Ministers of Her Majesty's Treasury Chancellor of the Exchequer Second Lord of the Treasury George Osborne Other Ministers Danny Alexander (Chief Secretary to the Treasury) David Gauke (Financial Secretary to the Treasury) Andrea Leadsom (Economic Secretary to the Treasury) Priti Patel (Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury) Lord Deighton (Commercial Secretary to the Treasury)