Syed Kamall

Not to be confused with Syed Kamal.

The Right Honourable
The Lord Kamall
Kamall in 2015
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Civil Society, Heritage, Tourism and Growth
In office
20 September 2022 – 28 October 2022
Prime MinisterLiz Truss
Preceded byThe Baroness Barran[a]
Succeeded byStuart Andrew (Sport, Tourism and Civil Society)
The Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay (Arts and Heritage)
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Technology, Innovation and Life Sciences
In office
17 September 2021 – 20 September 2022
Prime MinisterBoris Johnson
Preceded byThe Lord Bethell
Succeeded byOffice abolished
Co-chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists
In office
12 June 2014 – 1 July 2019
Serving with Ryszard Legutko
Preceded byMartin Callanan
Succeeded byRaffaele Fitto
Leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament
In office
19 November 2013 – 25 November 2014
Preceded byRichard Ashworth
Succeeded byAshley Fox
Parliamentary offices
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Assumed life peerage
11 February 2021
Member of the European Parliament
for London
In office
5 May 2005 – 1 July 2019
Preceded byTheresa Villiers
Succeeded byLance Forman
Personal details
Born
Syed Salah Kamall

(1967-02-15) 15 February 1967 (age 57)
London, England
Political partyConservative
Spouse(s)Sandira Beekoo
(now formally styled The Lady Kamall)
EducationUniversity of Liverpool
LSE
City University, London
Awards Life Peer
WebsiteOfficial website
Parliamentary website

Syed Salah Kamall, Baron Kamall (born 15 February 1967) is a British politician and academic, who from September to October 2022 served in HM Government as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.[1][2] He was previously Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Innovation at the Department of Health and Social Care (2021–22).[3]

Professor of Politics and International Relations at St Mary's University, Twickenham, Lord Kamall is also the academic and research director at the Institute of Economic Affairs, a classical liberal think tank based in London.

Kamall represented London as a Member of the European Parliament for the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2019, serving on the International Trade and Economic and Monetary Affairs Committees. From 2013 to 2014, Kamall served as Leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament, then as Leader of the European Conservatives and Reformists, from June 2014 till 2019.

In December 2020, he was nominated by Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a Life Peer (cr. 28 Jan 2021).[4]

Biography

[edit]

Kamall was born in Hornsey and brought up in Edmonton, London.[5] He is a Muslim,[6] and of Indo-Guyanese descent; his father migrated to London from Guyana in the 1950s.[7] Educated at the Latymer School in Edmonton, he then graduated from the University of Liverpool as BEng, before receiving an MSc degree from the London School of Economics and later a PhD from City University, London.[8]

Early career

[edit]

Kamall started his career as a business systems analyst for NatWest Overseas Department (1989–91). He was a Management Fellow, University of Bath School of Management (1994–96), Management Research Fellow, Leeds University Business School (1996–97), Associate Director/Consultant, Omega Partners (1997–2001), and a Consultant at SSK Consulting (2001–05). He was elected a Visiting Fellow of Leeds University Business School in 2004 where he lectured MBA students on international business and strategy, and supervised doctoral students' research.

Before entering the European Parliament, Kamall worked as a consultant to companies on marketing, strategy and public affairs. In 2003, he started a diversity recruitment business. He is a co-founder of the Global Business Research Institute (GBRI),[9] an educational body conducting outreach to business executives, journalists and civil servants, promoting a greater understanding of globalisation and its consequences.

Political career

[edit]
Kamall speaking in 2019

Kamall has been a member of the Conservatives since 1987 and has held various positions in the party since then: Chairman, Stockwell Ward, Vauxhall Conservative Association; Hon. Secretary, Bath Conservative Association CPC; Chairman, Eccleston Ward, and Chairman, Eccleston/Churchill CPC, Cities of London and Westminster Conservative Association; Executive Member, London Eastern Area Committee.

In May 2000, Kamall was a Conservative Candidate for the London Assembly. The following year, he was Conservative candidate for West Ham in the June 2001 General Election. He was placed fourth on the Conservative list in London for the 2004 European Parliament elections. The Conservatives won three seats and Kamall became a Member of the European Parliament in May 2005, after Theresa Villiers stepped down on being elected as an MP to the UK Parliament. In the European Parliament, he served on the Economic and Monetary Affairs, Legal Affairs and International Trade committees.

Kamall was placed on the "A-list" of Conservative parliamentary candidates ahead of the 2010 election[10] and was again returned to Brussels in 2014 representing London as an MEP.

He is also a contributor to the free market public policy think tank The Cobden Centre, one of Europe's pre-eminent think tanks based around the Austrian School of economics.[11]

In 2016, Kamall backed voting to leave the European Union in the run up to the Brexit referendum.[12]

In October 2018, during a debate in which Udo Bullmann, the German leader of the Socialists and Democrats Group linked the political right to extremism, Kamall responded by saying that Nazis were National Socialists who followed left wing policies. There was an angry reaction from the Left and he apologised for any offence caused. However, he was angered himself when Udo Bullmann, issued a press release which falsely accused Kamall of calling the S&D Nazis.[13][14][15]

In the 2019 European Parliament election, Syed Kamall lost his European Parliamentary seat.[16]

Prime Minister Boris Johnson then nominated him as a Life Peer in December 2020, as announced in the 2020 Political Honours list.[17] On 28 January 2021, he was created Baron Kamall, of Edmonton in the London Borough of Enfield, being introduced to the House of Lords the following month.[18]

On 17 September 2021, Lord Kamall was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Innovation at the Department for Health and Social Care, in the second Cabinet reshuffle of the second Johnson ministry.[19]

He was chosen to present the Royal Armills to the King at the 2023 Coronation.[20]

Publications

[edit]

In 1996, Kamall wrote a book on EU telecommunications policy,[21] and has written on multinational business and telecommunications policy for such books as Management in China: The Experience of Foreign Businesses; Trade and Investment in China: The European Experience; Political and Economic Relations Between Asia and Europe: New Challenges in Economics and Management, and in such journals as Management International Review and Transnational Corporations.

Personal life

[edit]

Kamall follows Islam,[6] and, in 1997, married Sandira Bye Beekoo,[22] a fellow Conservative.[23]

After leaving the European Parliament, Syed Kamall became the Academic and Research Director at the Institute of Economic Affairs and Professor of International Relations and Politics at St Mary's University, Twickenham.[24][25]

A keen player of the bass guitar, Kamall sang in a blues band called "Exiled in Brussels", with Latvian MEP Roberts Zīle.[26]

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Office vacant since 2021.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Lord Kamall". GOV.UK. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
  2. ^ "Ministerial Appointments: September 2022". GOV.UK. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
  3. ^ www.gov.uk
  4. ^ "Political Peerages 2020". Gov.uk. Archived from the original on 22 December 2020. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
  5. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  6. ^ a b "Interview: Syed Kamall MEP – "I would prefer people to have a choice, personally. I don't see why we need a shortlist."". Conservative Home. 22 July 2015. Archived from the original on 4 June 2016. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
  7. ^ Kingston Euro MP Syed Kamall tells of terrifying Indian ordeal Archived 4 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine This Is Local London.
  8. ^ "Syed Kamall, Dr., ex-MEP | OBV". www.obv.org.uk. Archived from the original on 9 October 2012. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
  9. ^ "www.gbri.org". Archived from the original on 18 June 2006.
  10. ^ "ConservativeHome's Seats & Candidates blog: Who is on the A-list?". conservativehome.blogs.com. Archived from the original on 8 January 2012. Retrieved 31 May 2006.
  11. ^ "Syed Kamall | The Cobden Centre". 7 September 2013. Archived from the original on 20 January 2021. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  12. ^ "Tory MEP Syed Kamall: I'm backing Brexit | London Evening Standard | Evening Standard". 11 March 2016. Archived from the original on 5 October 2021. Retrieved 5 October 2021.
  13. ^ "Tory sorry after socialism 'Nazis' remark". BBC News. 24 October 2018. Archived from the original on 8 May 2019. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
  14. ^ "Conservative causes uproar in EU Parliament for Nazi comment". The Washington Times. 24 October 2018. Archived from the original on 24 October 2018. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  15. ^ "'You idiot!' Moment Tory MEP faces chorus of abuse for claiming Hitler 'was a socialist'". 24 October 2018. Archived from the original on 24 October 2018. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  16. ^ "Jeremy Hunt fears for Tory party's future after election disaster". Evening Standard. 27 May 2019. Archived from the original on 27 May 2019. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
  17. ^ "Boris Johnson overrides watchdog to hand Lords seat to Tory donor who backed his leadership bid". Sky News. Archived from the original on 22 December 2020. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  18. ^ "Crown Office". www.thegazette.co.uk. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  19. ^ "Ministerial appointments: September 2021". 16 September 2021. Archived from the original on 17 September 2021. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
  20. ^ "Coronation order of service in full". BBC News. 5 May 2023. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
  21. ^ Kamall, Syed (1 July 1996). Telecommunications Policy. Cartermill International. ASIN 1860671101.
  22. ^ www.burkespeerage.com
  23. ^ "Sandira Beekoo". Kingston and Surbiton Conservatives. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
  24. ^ "Professor Syed Kamall". Institute of Economic Affairs. Archived from the original on 17 July 2020. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  25. ^ "Professor Syed Kamall". St Mary's University, Twickenham. Archived from the original on 10 August 2020. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  26. ^ Exiled in Brussels – Blue Jeans (BILDES 2017), 15 January 2018, retrieved 6 April 2023
[edit]
European Parliament
Preceded by Member of the European Parliament
for London
2005–2019
Party political offices
Preceded by Leader of the Conservative Party in the European Parliament
2013–2014 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists
2014–2019
Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by Gentlemen
Baron Kamall 		Succeeded by
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