David Lammy

David Lammy is one of the UK’s most senior statesmen and a defining figure in modern British politics. In 2025 he became the first person of colour to serve as the UK’s Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, and before that held the position of Foreign Secretary amid some of the most significant geopolitical upheavals of the 21st century, presiding over UK diplomacy through a period of intense global instability.

As Foreign Secretary, Lammy visited well over fifty countries in his efforts to steer Britain’s response to multiple overlapping crises: the Gaza war and wider Middle East tensions, escalating confrontation with Iran, Russia’s war on Ukraine, and a new phase of strategic competition with China. He led the coordination of critical support for Ukraine which culminated in the landmark 100 Year Partnership, and pioneered the reset of the UK’s relationship with the European Union. Together with France and Germany, he triggered the UN snapback mechanism to reimpose sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme.

A centrepiece of his tenure was the UK’s China Audit, a cross-government reassessment of Britain’s relationship with Beijing across security, trade, technology and human rights. Setting out its findings to Parliament, Lammy articulated his guiding doctrine of progressive realism: the UK should cooperate where interests align, challenge where they diverge, and compete when necessary. He became only the second UK Foreign Secretary in six years to visit Beijing. Alongside traditional geopolitics he placed emerging technologies at the heart of his work, championing the responsible use of artificial intelligence in diplomacy and security and setting out at the UN Security Council how AI must strengthen, rather than undermine, peace, stability and democratic processes.

As Deputy Prime Minister, Lammy combined a central role in domestic policy and the machinery of justice with continued influence over Britain’s international standing. His legal background and long-standing focus on fairness in the justice system, most notably through the Lammy Review into racial bias in criminal justice, sat alongside his experience managing high-stakes diplomacy and national security at the top of government. He was at the centre of efforts to rescue a justice system under enormous strain, placing victims, accountability and delivery at the heart of his agenda.

Trained as a barrister, Lammy studied law at SOAS, University of London, and became the first Black Briton to study at Harvard Law School, completing an LLM in 1997. Called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 1994, he has consistently linked his legal expertise to his political work since becoming the Member of Parliament for Tottenham in 2000 at the age of 27. He served as a government minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown between 2002 and 2010, holding portfolios that included health, constitutional affairs, culture, higher education and intellectual property. After Labour’s 2010 defeat he spent a decade on the backbenches building a reputation as one of the UK’s most visible voices on race, justice and equality, before returning to the front bench as Shadow Justice Secretary and then Shadow Foreign Secretary.

Beyond politics, Lammy is a published author and broadcaster. He has written two books, Out of the Ashes: Britain After the Riots (2011) and Tribes: How Our Need to Belong Can Make or Break the Good Society (2020), and has presented his own current affairs show on LBC radio. He left government in July 2026 and sits as the Member of Parliament for Tottenham. Lammy offers audiences a firsthand account of diplomacy, justice and power at the highest levels of the British state.