David Lindon Lammy PC FRSA is a British Labour Party politician serving as Member of Parliament for Tottenham since 2000, and has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor in Keir Starmer’s Shadow Cabinet since 2020. Elected to Parliament in 2000, Lammy served as a Minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, most recently as Minister of State for Universities in the Brown Ministry.
Early Life.
Lammy was born on 19 July 1972 in Whittington Hospital in Archway, North London, to Guyanese parents David and Rosalind Lammy. He and his four siblings were raised solely by his mother, after his father left the family when Lammy was 12 years old. Lammy speaks publicly about the importance of fathers and the need to support them in seeking to be active in the lives of their children. He chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Fatherhood and has written on the issue.
Lammy grew up in Tottenham. Having attended a local primary school, at the age of 10 he was awarded an Inner London Education Authority choral scholarship to sing at Peterborough Cathedral and attend The King’s School, Peterborough. Lammy went on to study at Harvard University where he became the first black Briton to attend Harvard Law School; there he studied a Masters of Law degree and graduated in 1997. He was called to the bar of England and Wales in 1994 at Lincoln’s Inn and practised as a barrister. Lammy practised as an attorney at Howard Rice in California from 1997 to 1998; and with D. J. Freeman 1998–2000. He is currently a visiting lecturer at SOAS.
Career (Political).
In 2000 he was elected for Labour on the London-wide list to the London Assembly. During the London election campaign Lammy was selected as the Labour candidate for Tottenham when Bernie Grant died. He was elected to the seat in a by-election held on 22 June 2000. Aged 27, he was the youngest Member of Parliament (MP) in the house and remained so until 2003 when Sarah Teather was elected.
Minister.
In 2002, he became Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department of Health. In 2003, Lammy was appointed as a Minister in the Department for Constitutional Affairs and while a member of the Government, he voted in favour of authorisation for Britain to invade Iraq in 2003. After the 2005 general election, Lammy was appointed Minister for Culture at the Department of Culture, Media and Sports.
In June 2007, Lammy was appointed as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. In October 2008, he was promoted to Minister of State and was appointed to the Privy Council. From June 2009 until June 2010 when Labour lost the election, he became Minister for Higher Education in the new Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Opposition.
After Labour lost the 2010 general elections a Labour Party leadership contest was announced. During the contest Lammy nominated Dianne Abbott, saying that he felt it was important to have a diverse field of candidates, but nonetheless declared his support for David Miliband. After the election of Ed Miliband, Lammy pledged his full support but turned down a post in the shadow cabinet, asserting a need to speak on a wide range of issues that would arise in his constituency due to the “large cuts in the public services”.
In 2010 there were suggestions that Lammy might stand for election as Mayor of London. Lammy pledged his support to Ken Livingstone’s bid to become the Labour London mayoral candidate, declaring him “London’s Mayor in waiting”. Lammy became Livingstone’s selection campaign chair. In 2014, Lammy announced that he was considering entering the race to become Mayor of London in the 2016 election.
Following the party’s defeat in the 2015 general elections, Lammy was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate in the Labour leadership election of 2015.
Mayor elections.
On 4 September 2014, Lammy announced his intention to seek the Labour nomination for the 2016 mayoral elections. In the London Labour Party’s selection process, he secured 9.4 per cent of first preference votes and was fourth overall, behind Sadiq Khan, Tessa Jowell, and Diane Abbott.
In March 2016, he was fined £5,000 for instigating 35,629 automatic phone calls urging people to back his mayoral campaign without gaining permission to contact the party members concerned. Lammy apologised “unreservedly” for breach of the Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations. It was the first time a politician had been fined for authorising nuisance calls.
Personal Life.
Lammy married the artist Nicola Green in 2005; the couple have two sons and a daughter.
Lammy is a Christian. He is also a Tottenham Hotspurs F.C. fan.
In November 2011, he published a book, Out of the Ashes: Britain After the Riots, about the August 2011 riots. In 2020, he published his second book, Tribes, which explored social division and the need for belonging.
Lammy features as one of the 100 Great Black Britons on both the 2003 and 2020 lists. He has regularly been included in the powerlist as one of the most influential people in the UK of African/African-Caribbean descent, including the most recent editions published in 2020 and 2021.
Net worth.
David Lammy estimated net worth is USD 6 Mil and Primary income from politician.
