Shailesh Lakhman Vara (born 4 September 1960) is a Ugandan-British politician, who served as

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a w ...

from July to September 2022. A member of the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

, he has served as the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for North West Cambridgeshire since 2005. Vara served as a Vice-Chairman of the

from 2001 to 2005. After two unsuccessful attempts to be elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

, he was elected as the MP for North West Cambridgeshire at the 2005 general election, succeeding Brian Mawhinney as the Conservative MP for the seat. In 2006, he was appointed to the shadow ministerial post of Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Commons by

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...

. Vara served in the Cameron government as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Courts and Legal Aid from 2013 to 2016 and as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2015 to 2016. He returned to the

backbenches In Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no governmental office and is not a frontbench spokesperson in the Opposition, being instead simply a member of the " ...

in July 2016, having been removed from his positions by the new Prime Minister

Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...

. In the January 2018 reshuffle, he re-entered government as

Minister of State Minister of State is a title borne by politicians in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a Minister of State is a Junior Minister of government, who is assigned to assist a specific Cabinet Minister. In o ...

at the

Northern Ireland Office The Northern Ireland Office (NIO; ga, Oifig Thuaisceart Éireann, Ulster-Scots: ''Norlin Airlann Oaffis'') is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for Northern Ireland affairs. The NIO is led by the Secretary of State for N ...

(NIO), serving under

Karen Bradley Karen Anne Bradley (''née'' Howarth, born 12 March 1970) is a British Conservative Party politician who served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2018 to 2019, and has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Staffordshire Moorland ...

. In November 2018, Vara resigned from this role in opposition to May's draft Brexit withdrawal agreement. During the

July 2022 United Kingdom government crisis In early July 2022, 62 of the United Kingdom's 179 government ministers, parliamentary private secretaries, trade envoys, and party vice-chairmen resigned from their positions in the second administration formed by Boris Johnson as Prime Min ...

, Vara was appointed by

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

but was dismissed by

Liz Truss Mary Elizabeth Truss (born 26 July 1975) is a British politician who briefly served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022. On her fiftieth day in office, she stepped down ...

on 6 September 2022.

Early life

Born in

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n immigrants on 4 September 1960, Vara moved to Britain with his family in 1964 when he was four and had a

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

upbringing. Educated at

Aylesbury Grammar School Aylesbury Grammar School is a grammar school in Aylesbury situated in the English county of Buckinghamshire, which educates approximately 1300 students. Founded in 1598 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire by Sir Henry Lee, Champion of Queen Elizabeth ...

and

Brunel University Brunel University London is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It was founded in 1966 and named after the Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. In June 1 ...

, Vara qualified as a

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

. He worked in the City and West End of London, and during 1989–1990, in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. Vara has been a senior legal adviser and business consultant for

London First BusinessLDN (spoken as Business London) is a not for profit advocacy group with a membership composed of leaders of businesses in London, United Kingdom. , it represented around 175 London based businesses. Its stated aim is "to make London t ...

, and is vice-president of the Small Business Bureau.

Political career

Vara has been involved with the Conservative Party since the late 1980s and has held various posts at local, regional and national levels. He served as a Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party from 2001 to 2005. In this position, he had a broad range of responsibilities, including advising

Michael Howard Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne (born Michael Hecht; 7 July 1941) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005. He previously held cabinet posi ...

, deputising for the Party chairman, party spokesman with the media and looking after

Conservative Future Conservative Future (CF) was the youth movement of the Conservative Party in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The organisation was made up of all members of the Conservative Party who were 30 years old or younger. Conservative Future was fou ...

(which comprises the 10,000 or so people in the party under 30). Vara was elected Member of Parliament for North West Cambridgeshire in May 2005. He had previously contested the

Birmingham Ladywood Birmingham Ladywood is a constituency of part of the city of Birmingham, represented in the House of Commons since 2010 by Shabana Mahmood of the Labour Party. Members of Parliament Clare Short, elected as a Labour MP from the 1983 gene ...

seat at the 1997 general election, which Labour's

Clare Short Clare Short (born 15 February 1946) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for International Development under Prime Minister Tony Blair from 1997 to 2003. Short was the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Ladywood from 1983 t ...

won easily, and Northampton South in the 2001 general election, which Vara failed to win by only 885 votes. At the Conservative Party Conference in 2000, he was awarded the accolade of official "rising star" of the Party, with

Lord Alexander of Weedon Robert Scott Alexander, Baron Alexander of Weedon, KC, FRSA (5 September 1936— 6 November 2005) was a British barrister, banker and Conservative politician. Education He was educated at Brighton College (of which he was later President) and ...

describing him as a "future Conservative Party leader". In the run-up to the 2001 general election, Vara was a member of the Party's manifesto teams for Law and Order and Legal Affairs. On 30 June 2016, Vara confirmed his support for

Michael Gove Michael Andrew Gove (; born Graeme Andrew Logan, 26 August 1967) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations since 2021. He has been Member of Parli ...

in the impending Conservative leadership contest. Vara said "I have worked very closely with Michael Gove at the

Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Just ...

and have been very impressed with him. He is a man of conviction with a very sharp intellect. He cares passionately about Britain and I believe he has the necessary qualities to lead our negotiations with the EU." In the 2019 Conservative leadership election, he initially backed the ultimately unsuccessful candidacy of

Dominic Raab Dominic Rennie Raab (; born 25 February 1974) is a British politician who has served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Secretary of State for Justice, and Lord Chancellor since October 2022, having previously served from 2021 to ...

Breast Cancer Bill

The ''Breast Cancer Bill'' was Vara's chosen issue after he was one of 20 MPs who were selected at random to introduce a

private member's bill A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in whi ...

to the House of Commons in 2006. He has campaigned to broaden the age of routine breast cancer screening for women from the present 50–70 age group to 45–75 years. The proposal was not supported by the government, which Vara claimed effectively blocked its progress by talking through to the end of the debate. Vara has given his backing to ''

Breast Cancer Campaign Breast Cancer Campaign was a breast cancer research charity based in the United Kingdom. In 2015, Breast Cancer Campaign merged with another charity, Breakthrough Breast Cancer, to form the UK's largest breast cancer research charity - Breast C ...

''s (BCC) award-winning national "wear it pink" day, and showed his support for breast cancer charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer at a meeting in the

Resignation as Northern Ireland Minister

Early on 15 November 2018, Vara announced his resignation as a Northern Ireland Minister on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, posting his letter of resignation. His resignation followed the previous day's marathon-length cabinet meeting to discuss the draft Brexit withdrawal agreement. Vara was opposed to

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...

prior to the referendum on the UK's continued EU membership in June 2016. However, Vara resigned from his role at the Northern Ireland Office as he did not believe the Government's proposed exit agreement honoured the outcome of the referendum.

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

On 7 July 2022, Vara was appointed as

by outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson, replacing

Brandon Lewis Brandon Kenneth Lewis (born 20 June 1971) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor from September to October 2022. He previously served as Chairman of the Conservative Party from 2018 to 2019 and ...

. He was sworn as a member of the

Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council The Privy Council (PC), officially His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians who are current or former members of e ...

on 8 July, entitling him to the style "

The Right Honourable ''The Right Honourable'' ( abbreviation: ''Rt Hon.'' or variations) is an honorific style traditionally applied to certain persons and collective bodies in the United Kingdom, the former British Empire and the Commonwealth of Nations. The term is ...

" for life. He was dismissed by Liz Truss on 6 September.

Personal life

Vara has a black belt in

Tae Kwon Do ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean martial arts, Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast k ...

.New Model Tories: Tory tribes
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', ].

References

External links

Official website
*
Conservative Party – Shailesh Vara
* ttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/election/constituency/0,,200-674,00.html The Times : Election 2005 br>Guardian – Class of 2005Telegraph – Vara Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vara, Shailesh 1960 births Living people Alumni of Brunel University London British Hindus British politicians of Indian descent Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies English people of Indian descent Gujarati people Northern Ireland Office junior ministers People educated at Aylesbury Grammar School Recipients of Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Ugandan emigrants to the United Kingdom UK MPs 2005–2010 UK MPs 2010–2015 UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–present British male taekwondo practitioners Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom