Biography

Sayeeda Warsi is a lawyer, business woman, a campaigner and a former cabinet minister, Sayeeda Warsi has had many roles, but she is best known for being the first Muslim to serve in a British cabinet. Warsi grew up in a family of Pakistani immigrants living in West Yorkshire. She studied as a solicitor at University of Leeds and the Crown Prosecution Service. In 2004, she gave up her job as a solicitor to stand, unsuccessfully, for election to Parliament. After being raised to the peerage in 2007, Warsi served as Shadow Minister for Community Cohesion and Social Action. The first female Muslim to attend Cabinet, Lady Warsi came to further prominence when, at her first meeting in Downing Street, she wore a traditional South Asian shalwar kameez. She served in David Cameron’s Cabinet, first as the Minister without portfolio between 2010 and 2012, then as the Senior Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Office and as the Minister of State for Faith and Communities, until her resignation citing her disagreement with the Government’s policy on the Israel–Gaza conflict in August 2014.

Profile

Sayeeda Warsi is a lawyer, business woman, a campaigner and a former cabinet minister, Sayeeda Warsi has had many roles, but she is best known for being the first Muslim to serve in a British cabinet. Warsi grew up in a family of Pakistani immigrants living in West Yorkshire. She studied as a solicitor at University of Leeds and the Crown Prosecution Service. In 2004, she gave up her job as a solicitor to stand, unsuccessfully, for election to Parliament. After being raised to the peerage in 2007, Warsi served as Shadow Minister for Community Cohesion and Social Action. The first female Muslim to attend Cabinet, Lady Warsi came to further prominence when, at her first meeting in Downing Street, she wore a traditional South Asian shalwar kameez. She served in David Cameron’s Cabinet, first as the Minister without portfolio between 2010 and 2012, then as the Senior Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Office and as the Minister of State for Faith and Communities, until her resignation citing her disagreement with the Government’s policy on the Israel–Gaza conflict in August 2014.