David Lammy facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
David Lammy
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpg)
Official portrait, 2024
|
|||||||||||||||||||
| Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs | |||||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 5 July 2024 |
|||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Keir Starmer | ||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | David Cameron | ||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
| Member of Parliament for Tottenham |
|||||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 22 June 2000 |
|||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Bernie Grant | ||||||||||||||||||
| Majority | 15,434 (38.4%) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Member of the London Assembly as the 10th Additional Member |
|||||||||||||||||||
| In office 4 May 2000 – 4 July 2000 |
|||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Office established | ||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Jennette Arnold | ||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
David Lindon Lammy
19 July 1972 Archway, London, England |
||||||||||||||||||
| Citizenship |
|
||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Labour | ||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse |
Nicola Green
(m. 2005) |
||||||||||||||||||
| Children | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Education |
|
||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation |
|
||||||||||||||||||
| Signature |  |
||||||||||||||||||
David Lammy is a British politician who became the Foreign Secretary in July 2024. He is a member of the Labour Party and has been a Member of Parliament (MP) for Tottenham since 2000. Before his current role, he held several junior government positions between 2002 and 2010.
Contents
Early Life and Education
David Lammy was born in Archway, north London, on 19 July 1972. His parents were from Guyana. He and his four brothers and sisters were raised by his mother after his father left when David was 12. Lammy often talks about how important fathers are in children's lives.
He grew up in Tottenham and went to Downhills Primary School. When he was 10, he received a special scholarship to sing at Peterborough Cathedral and attend The King's School, Peterborough.
Lammy later studied law at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. He became a lawyer in 1994. He then went to Harvard University in the United States, where he earned a Master of Laws degree in 1997. He was the first black British person to study at Harvard Law School.
After finishing his studies, Lammy worked as a lawyer in California and then in London before starting his political career.
Becoming an MP
In May 2000, David Lammy was first elected to the London Assembly, which helps run London. Later that same month, he was chosen to be the Labour candidate for the area of Tottenham in Parliament. The previous MP for Tottenham had recently passed away.
Lammy won the election on 22 June 2000. He was 27 years old, making him the youngest MP in the House of Commons at that time.
Early Government Roles
After being re-elected in 2001, Prime Minister Tony Blair appointed Lammy to his first government role in 2002. He became a junior minister in the Department of Health. In 2003, he moved to the Department for Constitutional Affairs.
In 2005, after another election, Blair promoted Lammy to Minister for Culture. In 2007, when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister, Lammy continued to serve in government. He was a junior minister for Innovation, Universities and Skills. From 2008 to 2010, he was the Minister for Higher Education.
Time in Opposition
After the Labour Party lost the 2010 general election, David Lammy returned to being a regular MP, not part of the government. He supported David Miliband in the Labour Party leadership election that year. When Ed Miliband became leader, Lammy chose not to join the Shadow Cabinet, which is the opposition's team of spokespeople.
In 2014, Lammy considered running to become the Mayor of London in the 2016 election. He ended up finishing fourth in the Labour Party's selection process. He was fined £5,000 for making automated phone calls to people without their permission during his mayoral campaign. He apologized for this mistake.
Lammy continued to be re-elected as the MP for Tottenham in the 2015, 2017, and 2019 general elections.
Return to the Frontbench
In 2020, David Lammy supported Keir Starmer in the Labour Party leadership election. After Starmer became leader, Lammy was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice. This meant he was the main opposition spokesperson for justice issues.
In November 2021, he was promoted to Shadow Foreign Secretary. In this role, he was the Labour Party's main spokesperson on international affairs.
Foreign Secretary
After the Labour Party won the 2024 general election, Keir Starmer became Prime Minister. On 5 July 2024, Starmer appointed David Lammy as the new Foreign Secretary. This is one of the most important jobs in the government, as the Foreign Secretary is in charge of the UK's relationships with other countries.
Since becoming Foreign Secretary, Lammy has traveled to many countries. He has met with leaders and foreign ministers in places like Poland, Germany, Sweden, Israel, and Qatar. These meetings often involve important global issues like the war in Ukraine and the conflict in Gaza.
Lammy has stated that the UK government wants to improve its relationship with the European Union. He has also said that the UK's position on the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar is "non-negotiable," meaning their status will not change.
.jpg)
In July 2024, Lammy visited Israel and met with families of Israeli hostages. He called for a ceasefire in Gaza if all hostages were released. He also announced that the UK would restart funding for the UNRWA, a UN agency that provides aid in Gaza, because the situation there was "desperate."
Lammy has also discussed the UK's relationship with China. In August 2024, he said he would not describe the treatment of the Uyghurs in China as "genocide."
.jpg)
In September 2024, Lammy caused some discussion with Armenia after a blog post about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. His comments were seen as controversial by some.
In November 2024, after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu, Lammy stated that the UK would follow the warrant.
.jpg)
In March 2025, Lammy condemned massacres of Syrian minorities during clashes in western Syria. He also stated that Israel's blockade of humanitarian supplies into Gaza was a "breach" of international law. However, the Prime Minister's office later clarified that it was for the courts to decide if international law had been broken.
Political Views
David Lammy has spoken out on many important issues throughout his career.
Crime and Justice
Lammy has often discussed how the criminal justice system treats people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds. He believes that young black people are much more likely to be imprisoned than white people, even when their situations are similar. He has called for changes to reduce this difference.
He has also talked about the causes of crime, including youth unemployment and cuts to youth services.
Race and Equality
Lammy has highlighted Britain's history of slavery and criticized universities like Oxford for not admitting enough black students. He also spoke about the Windrush scandal, where people who came to the UK from Caribbean countries were treated unfairly.
In 2017, he published a report for the government on how racial discrimination affects the police, courts, and prisons. He suggested ways to reduce racial bias in the justice system.
He has also spoken against antisemitism within the Labour Party.
In 2019, Lammy presented a TV documentary called The Unremembered: Britain's Forgotten War Heroes. This film showed how African soldiers who died fighting for Britain in World War I were not given the same respect and individual graves as white soldiers. This led to an investigation by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which found "widespread racism" in how these soldiers were remembered. The Prime Minister and Defence Secretary later apologized for these findings.
Foreign Policy Views
.jpg)
Lammy supports Britain being a member of the European Union. He has also spoken about human rights issues in other countries, such as the treatment of the Rohingya people in Myanmar and the persecution of Uyghurs in China.
He is a supporter of Israel. In September 2024, he described himself as a "liberal, progressive Zionist". He has also condemned Israel's "siege" of Gaza as "abhorrent" and "extremist."
.jpg)
Lammy wants to keep a strong relationship with the United States. He has also discussed the importance of working with countries like Saudi Arabia on shared interests.
Other Views
Lammy has commented on the 2011 England riots, suggesting that a lack of parental discipline might have played a role. He also described the Grenfell Tower fire as "corporate manslaughter" and called for arrests.
He supports shared parental leave, which allows both parents to take time off after a child is born. He believes this helps fathers be more involved in raising their children.
Lammy has also been critical of the charity Comic Relief for sometimes showing Africa in a way that uses "tired and unhelpful stereotypes." He believes charities should show African people as equals. Following his comments, Comic Relief announced they would change how they make their fundraising films, using local filmmakers instead of sending celebrities to Africa.
Personal Life
David Lammy is married to artist Nicola Green. They have two sons and a daughter. He is an Anglican, which is a type of Christian faith.
He is a big fan of Tottenham Hotspur F.C., a football team.
Lammy has dual citizenship in the United Kingdom and Guyana. His great-grandmother was from India and moved to Guyana as a laborer.
He has been included in the Powerlist, which lists the most influential people in the UK of African/African-Caribbean descent.
In 2009, Lammy appeared on the TV quiz show Celebrity Mastermind. He has also written two books: Out of the Ashes: Britain After the Riots (2011) and Tribes (2020), which explores social division. He also hosted a weekly radio show on LBC from 2022 to 2024.
Honours
- He became a member of the Privy Council in 2008, which gives him the title "The Right Honourable."
- He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).
