David Lammy

David Lammy (born 19 July 1972) is an English politician and lawyer serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs since 2021.

Lammy was born on 19 July 1972 in Whittington Hospital in Archway, North London, to Guyanese parents David and Rosalind Lammy.

He and his four siblings were raised solely by his mother, after his father left the family when Lammy was 12 years old.

Lammy speaks publicly about the importance of fathers and the need to support them in seeking to be active in the lives of their children.

He chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Fatherhood.

Lammy has written on the issue.

Lammy grew up in Tottenham, and went to Downhills Primary School.

At the age of 10, Lammy was awarded an Inner London Education Authority choral scholarship to sing at Peterborough Cathedral and attend The King's School, Peterborough.

He studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, graduating with a 2:1 in law.

He was called to the bar of England and Wales in 1994 at Lincoln's Inn.

Lammy went on to study at Harvard University, where he became the first black Briton to attend Harvard Law School; he studied for a Master of Laws degree and graduated in 1997.

He was employed as an attorney at Howard Rice in California from 1997 to 1998, and with D.J. Freeman from 1998 to 2000.

He is a visiting professor of practice at SOAS.

Lammy won with 53.5% of the vote, a decrease of 15.8% from the 1997 general election, and won a majority of 5,646, down from 20,200 in 1997.

A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Tottenham since the 2000 Tottenham by-election.

Lammy was a minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, lastly as Minister of State for Universities in the Brown ministry.

In 2000 Lammy was elected for Labour on the London-wide list to the London Assembly.

During the London election campaign Lammy was selected as the Labour candidate for Tottenham when Bernie Grant died.

He was elected to the seat in a by-election held on 22 June 2000.

Lammy was re-elected at the 2001 general election with an increased vote share of 67.5% and an increased majority of 16,916.

In 2002, he was appointed by Prime Minister Tony Blair as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department of Health.

Aged 27, he was the youngest Member of Parliament (MP) in the house until 2003 when Sarah Teather was elected.

In 2003, Lammy was appointed by Blair as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Constitutional Affairs and while a member of the Government, voted in favour of authorisation for Britain to invade Iraq in 2003.

At the 2005 general election, Lammy was again re-elected, with a decreased vote share of 57.9% and a decreased majority of 13,034.

After the election, Blair appointed Lammy as Minister for Culture at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

In June 2007, new Prime Minister Gordon Brown demoted Lammy to the rank of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

In October 2008, he was promoted by Brown to Minister of State and appointed to the Privy Council.

In June 2009, Brown appointed Lammy as Minister for Higher Education in the new Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, leading the Commons ministerial team as Lord Mandelson was Secretary of State.

He held the position until May 2010 when Labour lost the 2010 general election.

At the 2010 general election, Lammy was re-elected, with an increased vote share of 59.3% and an increased majority of 16,931.

After Labour lost the election, Lammy returned to the backbenches, and a Labour Party leadership contest was announced.

During the contest Lammy nominated Diane Abbott, saying that he felt it was important to have a diverse field of candidates, but subsequently declared his support for David Miliband.

After the election of Ed Miliband, Lammy pledged his full support but turned down a post in the Shadow Cabinet, higlighting the need to speak on a wide range of issues that would arise in his constituency due to "large cuts in the public services".

In 2012, Lammy pledged his support to Ken Livingstone's bid to become the Labour London mayoral candidate in the 2012 London mayoral election, declaring him "London's Mayor in waiting".

Lammy became Livingstone's selection campaign chair.

In 2014, Lammy announced that he was considering entering the race to become Mayor of London in the 2016 election.

On 4 September 2014, Lammy announced his intention to seek the Labour nomination for the 2016 mayoral election.

Following the party's defeat in the 2015 general election, Lammy was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn, whom he is good friends with, as a candidate in the Labour leadership election of 2015.

Lammy was re-elected in the 2015 general election with an increased vote share of 67.3% and an increased majority of 23,564.

He served as Shadow Secretary of State for Justice from 2020 to 2021 and has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs in Keir Starmer's Shadow Cabinet since November 2021.