Paul Boateng

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H.E. The Right Honourable
Paul Boateng
Paul Boateng

The Rt Hon. Paul Boateng preaching at a Christian Aid service in Wesley Memorial (Methodist) Church, Oxford, 2005, a few days before taking up the post as High Commissioner to South Africa.
Incumbent
Assumed office 
2005
Preceded by Ann Grant
In office
29 May 2002 – 6 May 2005
Preceded by Andrew Smith (politician)
Succeeded by Des Browne
In office
1987 – 6 May 2005
Preceded by Laurence Pavitt
Succeeded by Dawn Butler
Constituency Brent South
Born June 14, 1951 (1951-06-14) (age 57)
Hackney, London
Political party Labour
Relations Kwaku Boateng, (father)
former Ghanaian cabinet minister
Alma mater University of Bristol
Occupation Solicitor / Barrister
Religion Methodist

Paul Yaw Boateng (born June 14, 1951) is a British Labour Party politician. He became the UK's first Cabinet minister of black descent in May 2002 when he was appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent South from 1987 to 2005, and is the current British High Commissioner to South Africa.

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[edit] Background and early life

Boateng was born in Hackney, London of mixed Ghanaian and Scottish heritage. He lived in Ghana, where his father, Kwaku Boateng, was a cabinet minister under Kwame Nkrumah, until the 1966 coup that ousted Nkrumah. The family moved to Hemel Hempstead where he attended Apsley Grammar School. After graduating from the University of Bristol, he became a civil rights lawyer, originally as a solicitor, though he later retrained as a barrister. He gained some notoriety through this work in Lambeth in the late 1970s, when he was a familiar figure at protests against the kinds of police activity that built up to the 1981 Brixton Riot. Active Methodist and Methodist lay preacher. [1]

[edit] Political career

Boateng was elected to the Greater London Council in 1981 as a member of Labour's left wing and a supporter of Ken Livingstone. As chair of the GLC's police committee and vice-chair of its ethnic minorities committee, he continued to be a persistent critic of the police, especially in relation to their dealings with the black and Asian communities.

He stood, and lost, as a parliamentary candidate for Hertfordshire West in the 1983 general election. He had more success in the general election of 1987, when he was elected to the House of Commons for Brent South in succession to Laurence Pavitt, becoming one of the first three black MPs (the others being Bernie Grant and Diane Abbott). During his victory speech he famously declared, "Brent South today, Soweto tomorrow!"

Like many other members of the left in the 1980s, he became more moderate under the leadership of Neil Kinnock, who made him a junior spokesman in 1989. In 1992, he became shadow minister for the Lord Chancellor's Department, a post he held until the 1997 general election.

With Labour's victory, Boateng became the UK's first black government minister (that is, of African or Afro-Caribbean descent), as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health (UK) (Baron Sinha, an Indian, was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for India in the House of Lords in 1919). In 1998 Boateng became a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Home Office and subsequently became Minister of State for Home Affairs. At the time a loyal supporter of the New Labour project, he defended the police and criticised his former GLC colleague Ken Livingstone's mayoral campaign.

In 2001, he was made Financial Secretary to the Treasury, and stepped up to become Chief Secretary to the Treasury and so a member of the Cabinet in May 2002. He had been senior to Charles Clarke when both were at the Home Office, though Clarke was appointed Home Secretary when David Blunkett resigned.

In March 2005, he announced that he would not stand for re-election as an MP in the May 2005 general election. Labour having won the election in May 2005, he was named as the next High Commissioner to South Africa, replacing Ann Grant. Dawn Butler was selected by the local Constituency Labour Party to replace him and was elected. Butler is only the third black female MP in the House of Commons (Diane Abbott and Oona King being the others).

Boateng was featured on an episode of current affairs spoof The Day Today, in which Chris Morris complained to him about the explicit content in music by fictional artists such as 'Herman the Tosser'.

As a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council he enjoys the style of The Right Honourable and as a High Commissioner he also enjoys the style of His Excellency. Though both styles are not always used together he may be called His Excellency the Right Honourable Paul Boateng.[2][3] When His Excellency is used alone it is proper to use the title Mr but the title must not be used in conjunction with The Right Honourable.[4]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Methodist serves as Britain's first black Cabinet minister
  2. ^ Court and Social, The Times, 13 October 2006
  3. ^ The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs quoted in House of Commons Hansard Debates 1 November 2005 (part 4)
  4. ^ T.A. Reeves, of Imbil, Australia, in timesonline

[edit] External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Laurence Pavitt		 Member of Parliament for Brent South
1987 – 2005		 Succeeded by
Dawn Butler
Political offices
Preceded by
Andrew Smith		 Chief Secretary to the Treasury
2002–2005		 Succeeded by
Des Browne
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
Ann Grant		 High Commissioner to South Africa
2005 – present		 Incumbent
Persondata
NAME Boateng, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Boateng, Paul Yaw
SHORT DESCRIPTION Politician and the UK's first black Cabinet minister
DATE OF BIRTH June 14, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Hackney, London, England
DATE OF DEATH Living
PLACE OF DEATH
Languages