David Lammy

David Lammy is currently the Minister for Higher Education and Intellectual Property in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, a role he also held in the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills prior to the creation of BIS in June 2009.

He has served as a Minister in the Department of Health, the Department of Constitutional Affairs, Minister for Culture in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and most recently Minister for Skills with responsibility for the Commission for Employment and Skills, Leitch implementation, Train to Gain, Skills academies, Skills for Life and apprenticeships. He was made a member of the Privy Council in October 2008. 

David Lammy was elected Member of Parliament for Tottenham at a by-election on 22nd June 2000. Following his re-election in 2001, David became the first Tottenham MP to hold a Government position since 1945.

David was born in Tottenham on 19th July, 1972, one of five children raised by a single mother. At eleven years of age, David won a scholarship as a chorister to attend a state choral school at The Kings School in Peterborough. He came back to London in 1990 to study law at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Law School. Admitted to the Bar of England and Wales in 1994, David became the first Black Briton to study a Masters in Law at the Harvard Law School in 1997.

David returned to England and stood as a Labour candidate for the newly created Greater London Assembly, securing a position as the GLA member with a portfolio for Culture and Arts. Following the sad death of Tottenham’s longstanding MP Bernie Grant, David was elected as Labour MP for Tottenham at the age of 27 in June 2000.

David was a trustee of the international development charity ActionAid from 2000 - 2006, becoming an Honorary Ambassador at the end of 2006. He previously served on the Church of England's Archbishop's Council, has an honorary doctorate from the University of East London, and is an Associate Fellow in the Centre for Caribbean Studies at the University of Warwick, and has also been awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of East London. David sits on the International Advisory Board of the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) and is a member of the Royal Society of the Arts. He is a member of the Society of Labour Lawyers, the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, the Christian Socialist Movement, the Fabian Society, Progress and of the Amicus Branch of Unite.

He lives in Tottenham and is married with two young sons.