Paul boateng biography

British Labour Party politician (born 1951)

Paul Yaw Boateng, Baron Boateng, CVO, PC, DL (born 14 June 1951) is a British Labour Partypolitician, a former civil rights lawyer and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent South from 1987 to 2005, becoming the UK's first Black Cabinet Minister in May 2002, when he was appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Following his departure from the House of Commons, he served as the British High Commissioner to South Africa from March 2005 to May 2009. He was introduced as a member of the House of Lords on 1 July 2010.

Background and early life

Boateng was born in Hackney, London, of mixed Ghanaian and Scottish heritage; his family later moved to Ghana when Boateng was four years old. His father, Kwaku Boateng, was a lawyer and Cabinet Minister during Kwame Nkrumah's regime. Boateng had his early education at Ghana International School and attended Accra Academy, a high school in Ghana. Boateng's life in Ghana came to an abrupt end after his father went to jail in 1966 following a military coup, which toppled the Ghanaian government. His father was imprisoned without trial for four years. Boateng, then aged 15, and his sister, Rosemary, fled to the UK with their mother.

They settled in Hemel Hempstead, where he attended Apsley Grammar School. He later read law at the University of Bristol, where he resided at Wills Hall and was a member of the Barneys Club. He began his career in civil rights, originally as a solicitor, though he later retrained as a barrister. He worked primarily on social and community cases, starting under renowned civil rights advocate Benedict Birnberg, involving women's rights, housing and police complaints, including a period from 1977 to 1981 as the legal advisor for the Scrap Sus Campaign. Boateng was also an executive member of the National Council for Civil Liberties. He represented Cherry Groce, a mother of six who was shot a

Lord Paul Boateng was High Commissioner to South Africa from 2005 to 2009. During his term, he was credited with building close relationships with South Africa’s ANC government as well as playing a significant role in finding a political solution to the crisis in Zimbabwe. In 2008, Lord Boateng participated in a number of high level talks to try to encourage US political leaders to support the Doha Development Round trade negotiations. He has also spoken at the World Economic Forum on development in Africa.

As Chief Secretary to the Treasury (2002-05), Lord Boateng was instrumental in ensuring that international aid and the Millennium Development Goals remained important priorities for the British government. He worked with Gordon Brown to draft the Africa Commission Report, which called on aid from developed nations to Africa to be increased to $50 billion a year.

Among Lord Boateng’s many political appointments, he was Financial Secretary (2001-02), Minister of State and Deputy Home Secretary (1999-2001), Minister for Criminal Policy (1998-99), and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health (1997-98).

Lord Boateng is currently a Non-executive Director of Aegis Defence Services Ltd., a leading security and risk management company with project experience in over 60 countries.

Book Paul Boateng as a keynote speaker.

1951–

Politician

Boateng, Paul, photograph.

Paul Yaw Boateng twice made political history in Britain: in 1987, he became one of the first black Britons elected to the House of Commons. Fifteen years later, Prime Minister Tony Blair appointed Boateng an undersecretary at the Treasury, making him the first black ever to hold a cabinet position in Britain. He resigned from the job in 2005 and became the United Kingdom's special envoy to South Africa.

Boateng was born in 1951 in England, to a British mother and Ghanaian father who was an attorney. The family returned to his father's homeland when Boateng was a small child, and the senior Boateng, Kwaku, became active in Ghana's movement toward independence. Kwaku Boateng went on to serve as a cabinet minister in first black government after independence was achieved in 1957, but nine years after that, Boateng's mother was forced to take her son and his sister back to England with her when a coup attempt resulted in their father's arrest and imprisonment.

Earned Law Degree

Fifteen years old when his family returned to England, Boateng finished his schooling in the Hertfordshire area north of London, and went on to earn a law degree in 1976 from the University of Bristol. He specialized in civil-rights law during stints at private-practice firms in London, and was eventually made partner at B.M. Birnberg & Co., one of the leading civil-rights law groups in the United Kingdom.

Boateng's work on civil-rights issues led him into politics. He became active in the Labour Party of Britain, and the London arm to which he belonged was known as one of the party's more radical factions. In the early 1980s, those leftist Labour Party members came to control the Greater London Council (GLC), the municipal government for the city at the time. Boateng was named chair of the GLC's Police Committee in 1981, which worked to reduce tensions in London between the Metropolitan Police force and

The Rt Hon. the Lord Boateng (LLB 1973, Hon LLD 2007) is a lawyer and British Labour party politician. Throughout his groundbreaking legal and political career, he has championed civil rights, campaigned on social issues and provided powerful representation for marginalised people across the UK. Elected to parliament in 1987, Lord Boateng made history as the first Black UK minister in 1997. He was previously Chair of Book Aid International, is Vice-President of the London Library and sits on the board of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.

This year’s winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award, Lord Boateng talks to us about life as a Bristol Law student and his astonishing career. 

On growing up
I was born in Hackney, London in 1951 and when I was four years old my family moved to Ghana. My father was a lawyer and Cabinet Minister and was jailed in 1966 as a political prisoner. My mother, sister and I fled to the UK, where we settled in a council estate in Hemel Hempstead when I was 15 years old.

On being a student in the 1970s
In the 1970s there was a sense of transition, a sense of change. We were living in the aftermath of the 1968 civil unrest in Paris and the subsequent student uprisings. There was the Vietnam War, the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, the Civil Rights movement in the US and a growing movement in the UK for women, Black people and gay people. But racism, sexism and homophobia were the order of the day, and we were at the height of the Cold War. We were living in a very challenging time, but one where anything seemed possible. To be politically and intellectually aware was very exciting and I threw myself into it – I was on the Student’s Council, the Drama Society and I was President of the Debating Union.

On studying Law
I decided to train as a solicitor rather than a barrister after reading a Yale Law Review on the Law Centre Movement in the US. Law Centres provided representation for people up against l