Profile of Baroness Sayeeda Warsi

Cabinet Minister and Conservative Party Chairman

Sayeeda Warsi is a Cabinet Minister and Chairman of the Conservative Party.  She is a former Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party.
Sayeeda has been politically active from her early college days and was subsequently instrumental in the launch of Operation Black Vote in West Yorkshire in 1996 and stood as a candidate in the 2005 General Election. In 2007, she was appointed to the House of Lords and joined David Cameron’s Shadow Cabinet.

Education and Career

Sayeeda was born in Dewsbury in 1971.  She was educated at Birkdale High School and Dewsbury College, and at the University of Leeds where she read Law (LLB).  She attended the York College of Law to complete the Legal Practice Course, and then trained with the Crown Prosecution Service and the Home Office Immigration Department.
After qualifying as a Solicitor, Sayeeda worked for John Whitfield, the last Conservative Member of Parliament for Dewsbury at Whitfield Hallam Goodall Solicitors.  Sayeeda then went on to set up her own specialist practice, George Warsi Solicitors, in Dewsbury.

Campaigns and Areas of Interest

Sayeeda has always had a keen interest in racial justice issues.  For many years she was an executive member of the Kirklees Racial Equalities Council and she was a member of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust’s Racial Justice Committee and regularly represented them at national conference.
She has been a speaker on issues as varied as forced marriages, prison conditions and business network links at a national level.   She regularly shares a platform with leading Parliamentarians from both the House of Commons and House of Lords.
Sayeeda has worked overseas on a research project on forced marriages for the Ministry of Law in Pakistan and for the women’s empowerment charity  - -the Savayra Foundation.

Media Experience

Sayeeda regularly appears in the broadcast media, including the BBC’s Question Time and Radio Four’s Woman’s Hour.  Sayeeda has also written articles for the national and regional press