Sayeeda Warsi, Baroness Warsi
Sayeeda Hussain Warsi, Baroness Warsi (born 28March 1971) is a British politician for the Conservative Party and alawyer. Lady Warsi is currently a member of the Shadow Cabinet as theShadow Minister for Community Cohesion and Social Action.
Early life
Warsi was born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire in 1971 to Pakistani parents. Shewas educated at Birkdale High School, Dewsbury College, and theUniversity of Leeds where she read Law (LLB). She attended the YorkCollege of Law to complete her Legal Practice Course and trained bothwith the Crown Prosecution Service and the Home Office ImmigrationDepartment.
After qualifying as a Solicitor, she worked for John Whitfield, thelast Conservative Member of Parliament for Dewsbury at Whitfield HallamGoodall Solicitors and then went on to set up her own specialistpractice George Warsi Solicitors in Dewsbury. She has also workedoverseas for the Ministry of Law in Pakistan and in Kashmir as Chairmanof the Savayra Foundation, a women's empowerment charity.
Life Peer
Warsi was the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Dewsbury atthe 2005 General Election, becoming the first Muslim woman to beselected by the Conservatives. She lost that election by nearly 5000votes. She has served as a special adviser to Michael Howard onCommunity Relations and was appointed by David Cameron as Vice Chairmanof the Conservative Party with specific responsibility for Cities.
In its December edition, the New Statesman 'revealed' that Warsireceived support for her general election campaign from Lord Ahmed, aLabour peer. According to the New Statesman's report, Warsi "welcomedLord Ahmed's support".
On 2 July 2007 it was announced that, despite her failure to beelected to the House of Commons, Warsi would become Shadow Minister forCommunity Cohesion and a working peer.Her peerage was conferred asBaroness Warsi, of Dewsbury in the County of West Yorkshire on 11October 2007 and gazetted on 26 October 2007. She is, by October 2007,the youngest member of the House of Lords.
The Gay rights organisation Stonewall, as well as several Labourpoliticians, have questioned her suitability for her current job due toleaflets for her election campaign which contained allegedly homophobicviews. Some of her 2005 campaign leaflets claimed that Labour'slowering of the homosexual age of consent from 18 to 16 was "allowingschoolchildren to be propositioned for homosexual relationships",[6]and that homosexuality was being peddled to children as young as sevenin schools. On the subject, Warsi said that
"I look back at lots of my election leaflets and think, 'God - whydid I phrase it like that? What was I on?" adding "There was a wholeteam that was involved in my election leaflets. Looking back on it,maybe I could have used much better language than that", while addingher belief that sex education should be "out of the school system,initially".
Warsi also said that the removal of Section 28 from the Local Government Act 1986 was 'the promotion of homosexuality'.
On 1 December 2007, Lady Warsi travelled with Lord Ahmed to meetfor talks with Sudanese officials and Ministers, in response to thejailing of an English teacher, Gillian Gibbons. Gibbons had been foundguilty of insulting Islam, after allowing her class to name a teddybear Mohammed. This had resulted in her prosecution and a 15 day jailsentence. Lady Warsi's and Lord Ahmed's meeting with the Sudanesepresident Omar al-Bashir led to Mrs Gibbons being pardoned.
