A blog post was published in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office as part of the Chevening Conversations: The topic was UK under the 2015 to 2024 Conservative government: How can the youth of today shape the world of tomorrow. It is not that the UK did not have youth political leaders earlier. Democracy evolved from monarchy, and the people of the UK have gone through a phase of change in ideologies to ensure that the UK has a prominent role in global politics.
Young political thinkers and leaders have helped shape the UK’s transition to the modern world. Most have seen or worked with their parents in community or health services. Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is an example of a youth leader in the UK who has made a mark for youth in the country’s politics. Even today, the youth leaders are making their mark in politics. Despite being too young to make a big impact, many engage in political activism and advocacy. They are challenging the government’s decisions on climate change, racial justice, and social inequality. Their voices are becoming impossible to ignore. It is the beginning of their political career. In the UK, this activism is not limited to traditional party politics. Young leaders also create their movements and initiatives, fostering a sense of empowerment that transcends traditional party lines. They use social media platforms to drive political engagement among their peers. It is a strong message to the existing generation that there is a breed of young political leaders who will take the country forward. Whenever they are asked to do so. Using digital platforms, they ensure their voices are heard and valued.
The rise of young leaders in the UK is a testament to the resilience and determination of the UK’s youth politics. The government and older generations must appreciate and promote the invaluable contributions of young leaders. Their insights, energy, and dedication are bound to create a better future for the UK. We profile some promising youth political leaders in the UK.
Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, MP for Richmond and Northallerton and Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak is a youth leader with lots of promise for the future of the UK. Rishi has proved to be a diligent constituency MP, and it was no surprise to see him re-elected in 2017, 2019 and 2024. He grew up watching his parents serve their local community with dedication. Rishi’s father was an NHS family GP, and his mother ran her local chemist shop. He wanted to make that same positive difference to the people as their Member of Parliament, and he continues to be loved and supported. He lives in Kirby Sigston, just outside Northallerton.
He has a successful business career and co-founded a large investment firm, working with companies from Silicon Valley to Bangalore.
Then, he used that experience to help small and entrepreneurial British companies grow successfully. From working in his mother’s small chemist shop to building large businesses, Sunak has seen first-hand how politicians should support free enterprise and innovation to ensure the public’s future prosperity.
He has received education from Winchester College, Oxford University, and Stanford University. That experience changed his life, and he is passionate about ensuring everybody has access to a great education. He was also the school governor and a board member of a large youth club, and he has always volunteered his time to education programmes that spread opportunity.
Married to Akshata, daughter of India’s IT baron Narayana Murthy and Sudha Murthy, Rajya Sabha MP and author, he has lived many years in California. He has two daughters, Krishna and Anoushka. In the middle of 2019, Rishi Sunak was an unknown junior minister in the local government department. Seven months later, at thirty-nine, he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, grappling with the gravest economic crisis in modern history. Michael Ashcroft’s new book charts Sunak’s ascent from his parents’ Southampton pharmacy to the University of Oxford, the City of London, Silicon Valley – and the top of British politics. Rishi Sunak is a cautious, fiscally conservative financier who faced the biggest backlash as the biggest-spending Chancellor in history. Sunak was unexpectedly promoted to the Treasury’s top job in February 2020, with a brief to spread investment and opportunity as part of Boris Johnson’s levelling-up agenda. Within weeks, the coronavirus had sent Britain into lockdown, with thousands of firms in peril and millions of jobs on the line. As health workers battled to save lives, it was down to Sunak to save livelihoods. His efforts make him the UK’s most loved and liked young leader.
In July 2024, Seema Malhotra was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Home Office. She works with a great team that Home Secretary Yvette Cooper led as part of Britain’s new Labour Government. She was elected as the MP for Feltham and Heston in July 2024. Her role and responsibilities as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Migration and Citizenship)include looking after legal migration policy, Immigration Rules and visa policy, Windrush Compensation Scheme, Future Borders and Immigration System, HM Passport Office, General Register Office, Border Force operations, safe and legal routes and resettlement.
Seema was born in Hammersmith Hospital. She grew up with her four siblings above her parents’ shop in Osterley and Bedfont. She went to Heston Infants, where her mum Usha also taught and the Green School. Seema has worked tirelessly to support families, faith groups, small businesses, women entrepreneurs and our NHS. She has worked with the police and community groups to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour and successfully campaigned to keep Feltham Station Ticket Office open.
She set up the local charity Hounslow’s Promise, which has supported young people through mentoring, masterclasses, laptops, and quiet study spaces. Seema founded the Hounslow Christmas Project four years ago, working with over 40 schools, businesses, and the community to buy, wrap and deliver over 2500 gifts to children from the poorest families in Hounslow. Seema is a Patron of Heston West Big Local and the Hanworth Park House Society. She has a record as a passionate, campaigning and effective local MP.
She constantly works to ensure her constituency has Safer streets and more police. She is running a campaign to take back streets from gangs, drug dealers and fly-tippers with 13,000 more police officers, town centre patrols and a new network of youth hubs to stop young people from being drawn into gangs. Malhotrta is also getting the NHS back on its feet. Cut waiting lists through 40,000 more weekend and evening appointments each week, rescue NHS dentistry and increase mental health support – paid for by cracking down on tax loopholes.
Her focus is on investing in young people. Hiring 6,500 more teachers, providing free breakfast clubs for every primary school pupil, and expanding apprenticeships and training. She is working with great zeal on climate leadership and cheaper energy bills.
Create Great British Energy, a new publicly-owned green energy company to cut energy bills and create good jobs – paid for by a windfall tax on oil and gas giants. Rebuild the economy for working people. Labour Party, she is confident, will bring economic stability, create more good jobs, end fire and rehire, and deliver a genuine living wage that, for the first time, takes account of the cost of living.
Suella Braverman is the Conservative MP for Fareham and Waterlooville and has been an MP continually since 2015, being re-elected in 2017 and 2019, on both occasions increasing the share of the vote for the Conservatives. She comes from a family that is proud to serve their local community in Wembley, North West London, through local politics. Her mother was a Councillor for 16 years, and her father was a campaigner for local people. After her initial schooling at Wembley, she did her Law at Queens’ College, Cambridge University, followed by a Masters in European and French Law (LLM) at the Pantheon-Sorbonne in Paris and sat the New York Bar exams, qualifying as an Attorney in New York State. This gave her a comparative insight into Europe and the USA’s legal, constitutional and political frameworks.
She served on the Education Select Committee, as a Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Treasury, and as a Brexit Minister. Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed her to serve as Attorney General in Cabinet.
She is credited with an important contribution to working mothers (in the Cabinet of the UK) when, in 2021, as the first Cabinet Minister, she had a baby in office. A new law (‘Gabriella’s Law’- named after her daughter) was passed to enable her to take maternity leave and return to her role afterwards.
She served as Home Secretary appointed by Prime Ministers Liz Truss and later Rishi Sunak. Her priorities were stopping the small boats crossing the Channel, common sense policing and keeping the British people safe. According to Braverman—Aspiration to her means rewarding endeavour, enabling compassion, and liberating people from the shackles of the state.
Suella was the most senior Woman in the UK Government. As Attorney General, Suella successfully challenged the Colston Statue case in which the Court of Appeal agreed that human rights cannot be a defence to serious damage caused during protests. She also oversaw improvements at the Crown Prosecution Service and Serious Fraud Office. She was the first Minister after Boris Johnson to visit Ukraine in June 2022 to lead global efforts to support the War Crimes prosecutions by the Ukrainians against Russians suspected of murder, rape and other horrific crimes against civilians. In Theresa May’s Government in 2018, Suella served as a Junior Minister in the Department for Exiting the European Union. During this time, she was responsible for the Withdrawal Agreement Bill. Suella resigned in 2018 when it became clear that the Withdrawal Agreement would keep Northern Ireland inside the Customs Union and annexe Northern Ireland to the European Union. She voted against the Withdrawal Agreement 3 times, making her one of the ‘28 Spartans’.
Priti Patel is the Conservative MP elected as the first Member of Parliament for the Witham constituency in May 2010 and was subsequently re-elected in May 2015, June 2017, and December 2019. Priti was born in London and educated at a comprehensive girls’ school in Watford. She studied economics at Keele University before completing her postgraduate studies at the University of Essex.
Her experiences were not forged in a bastion of privilege sheltered from the real world. Enterprise and hard work have shaped Priti’s life, values and beliefs. Priti believes strongly in the Conservative values of meritocracy, freedom and aspiration. The Conservative belief in freedom, free markets and lower taxes empowers people, families and businesses to flourish and control their destiny.
Priti has been actively involved in the Conservative Party since the 1990s. She is a grassroots campaigner and prides herself on being a longstanding Conservative Party activist and volunteer for over 30 years. She has also supported the party in several roles, including as an Association Chairman, an elected member of the Conservative Party Board and a member of the 1922 Committee. Since the Referendum, Priti has played a leading role in the Leave campaign and has worked with colleagues to bring the country together to secure a prosperous future outside the EU.
During her time as the Member of Parliament for Witham, Priti has held several positions in Government, including as the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (2014-2015) and Minister of State for Employment at the Department for Work and Pensions (2015-2016). She served as Secretary of State for International Development between July 2016 and November 2017, where she transformed the delivery of overseas assistance programmes to focus on aid effectiveness, economic development, trade and jobs so that countries can stand on their own two feet and also pioneered new levels of accountability and openness in the use of the aid budget, with reforms and spending controls across the aid sector.
Between July 2019 and September 2022, Priti held the Cabinet position of Secretary of State to the Home Department. During her time as Home Secretary, Priti oversaw significant reform of the immigration system with the points-based system, EU Settlement Scheme, BNO Hong Kong scheme, Ukraine family and sponsorship visa schemes all introduced alongside action to tackle illegal migration. Priti’s time at the Home Office also saw the delivery of record investment into the policing services and major legislative reform through the Police, Crime, Courts and Sentencing Act. Priti is a strong voice for Witham, Essex and Britain.
Preet Kaur Gill is the Member of Parliament for Birmingham, Edgbaston, Shadow Minister for Primary Care and Public Health, and the UK’s first female Sikh MP. Born and raised in the West Midlands, she was a social worker, Councillor, and Cabinet Member for Public Health and Protection before entering Parliament.
Gill was also Chair of the Co-operative Party Parliamentary Group and Vice-President of the Local Government Association before becoming Shadow Minister for Primary Care and Public Health. She was Shadow Secretary of State for International Development.
In Parliament, she chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for British Sikhs. She acts as Vice Chair for the APPG for International Freedom of Religion or Belief, the APPG for the Commonwealth Games, and the APPG for Aid Match. I also co-chair the APPG for Levelling up Birmingham. In 2018, Gill was featured on Birmingham City University’s Brummies Who Inspire and presented an award for Sikh Woman of Substance by the Sikh Women’s Alliance. In 2020, she was named MP of the Year by the Patchwork Foundation. Gill has been working with GPs, pharmacists and dentists – the front door of our health service – to build an NHS fit for the future.
She has held the Government accountable for its poor record on NHS dentistry, access to healthcare, tackling youth vaping, child health, and plenty more. She has promised to continue to push for measures to ensure that the NHS is there for all when one needs it.
In May this year, she raised £460 for charity as part of the 2024 BCG Grand National Charity Bet Campaign. Gill joined over 50 parliamentarians to place a charity bet on this year’s Grand National, with the UK’s biggest betting operators handing over all winnings to the MP’s charity of choice.
The Edgbaston MP donated her winnings to the local charity Open Door Counselling, based in Edgbaston. Open Door, psychiatrists and counsellors, started providing mental services to vulnerable young people across Birmingham and now serve people of all ages across the West Midlands. Collectively, parliamentarians raised more than £15,000 for various local causes. On her website, Gill points out that during the past 12 months alone, she has spoken in Parliament nearly 200 times, tabled over 150 written questions, sent dozens of letters to Ministers, and secured debates on issues ranging from the state of NHS dentistry to crime in her area.