Top facts on Indian origin woman appointed as Britain’s new Interior Minister

Britain’s new Prime Minister, Boris Johnson on 24th July appointed Priti Patel as the interior minister replacing the Pakistan origin Sajid Javid who ran the Treasury department as the first ethnic minority Chancellor of the Exchequer. Priti Patel has been a fervent Brexiteer taking charge as Britain’s first Indian origin home secretary as a part of PM’s top team.  

This has been the political comeback for the former international development minister. Priti is English-born to Indian parents and she avidly campaigned to leave the Europian Union in 2016. This woman promised to keep her people and country secure while speaking at the helm of the UK Home Office.

"I will do everything in my power to keep our country safe, our people secure, and also to fight the scourge of crime that we see on our streets. I look forward to the challenges that now lie ahead," Patel said.

When she was 47, she resigned as International Development Minister in 2017 due to diplomatic protocol breaching in the meetings.  She was also the spine of the ‘Back Boris’ campaign for the leadership of the party being in the frontline. She was then elected as the Conservative MP for Witham in Essex in 2010 and became the Indian Diaspora Champion during the Tory government.

Priti Patel vehemently ran along with the ministry under the role of junior Treasury minister by releasing a report on the British economy arguing for lower taxes and financial instability. She also pivoted the EU referendum campaign, launching an appeal for saving the British Curry. This led to an argument that a post- Brexit immigration system would be better for those from outside the EU and easing the shortage of chefs for Indian restaurants in Britain.


She is the Gujarati origin politician and a prominent guest at major Indian diaspora events within the UK who has also been observed as the seamless supporter in UK of the PM of India Narendra Modi. Being a part of Foreign Affairs Committee, she warned that Britain lagged behind to engage with India eventually at Global Britain and India parliamentary inquiry.

In 2015, Former British leader David Cameron named Patel as Britain’s 1st Indian heritage PM during a rally at the Wembley Stadium while inviting the Indian PM Narendra Modi. She went on to be appointed as the employment minister after the 2015 elections and then got promoted to the position of secretary of the state in the Department for International Development (DFID) in 2016. Priti Patel has been marked as a roaring lioness amongst the Tory MPs consistent rebels who voted against the withdrawal agreement with the EU.  

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