Shailesh Vara

Shailesh Lakhman Vara (/ˈʃaɪlɛʃ ˈvɑːrə/, born 4 September 1960) is a British Conservative former politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for North West Cambridgeshire from 2005 until 2024. He was the UK's first Hindu MP. He also served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from July to September 2022.

In 2006 he was appointed to the shadow ministerial post of Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Commons by David Cameron. Vara served in the Cameron government and was the conservative party's first ethnic minority minister in the House of Commons when in May 2010, he was appointed to the government front bench as an Assistant Whip. On May 15, 2012, he became the first ethnic minority to speak for the conservatives from the Dispatch Box when he stepped in at Justice Questions when two Justice Ministers ( Ken Clarke, Lord Chancellor and Nick Herbert, Minister of State) were unable to attend. He was also 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 July 2016, having been removed from his positions by the new prime minister Theresa May. In the January 2018 reshuffle, he re-entered government as Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office (NIO), serving under Karen Bradley. 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, Vara was appointed by Boris Johnson as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland but was dismissed by Liz Truss on 6 September 2022.

In 2014, Vara was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee. It is the highest award for Indian origin persons living abroad. Vara received the award for promoting ties between the UK and India, and for being the first Indian origin minister for the Conservative party.

Shailesh Vara was born on 4 September 1960 in Uganda to Gujarati Indian immigrants. He moved to Britain with his family in 1964 and had a Hindu upbringing. Vara went to Aylesbury Grammar School, before studying law at Brunel University, where he qualified as a solicitor.

He worked in the City of London and West End of London, as well as in Hong Kong from 1989-1990. Vara has been a senior legal adviser and business consultant for London First, and is a former vice-president of the Small Business Bureau.

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, deputising for the Party chairman, party spokesman with the media and looking after Conservative Future (which comprises the 10,000 or so people in the party under 30).

Since the 1990s Vara spoke frequently at Party Conferences including opening key debates on the economy and law and order.

At the 1997 general election, Vara stood in Birmingham Ladywood, coming second with 13.3% of the vote behind the incumbent Labour MP Clare Short.