49 Facts About David Lammy

David Lammy was born on 19 July 1972 and is an English politician and lawyer serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs since 2021.

David Lammy served as Shadow Secretary of State for Justice from 2020 to 2021 and has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs in Keir Starmer's Shadow Cabinet since November 2021.

David Lammy speaks publicly about the importance of fathers and the need to support them in seeking to be active in the lives of their children.

David Lammy grew up in Tottenham, and was educated at Downhills Primary School there, followed by the awarding of an Inner London Education Authority choral scholarship, at the age of 10, to sing at Peterborough Cathedral and attend The King's School, Peterborough.

David Lammy studied at the School of Law, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, graduating with a 2:1.

David Lammy went on to study at Harvard University, where he became the first black Briton to attend Harvard Law School; there he studied for a Master of Laws degree and graduated in 1997.

David Lammy was called to the bar of England and Wales in 1994 at Lincoln's Inn.

David Lammy is a presenter on LBC and hosts a weekly Sunday show, from 10am to 1pm.

David Lammy was elected to the seat in a by-election held on 22 June 2000.

In 2003, David Lammy was appointed by Blair as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Constitutional Affairs and while a member of the Government, he voted in favour of authorisation for Britain to invade Iraq in 2003.

David Lammy held the position until May 2010 when Labour lost the election.

In 2010 there were suggestions that David Lammy might stand for election as Mayor of London in 2012.

In 2014, David Lammy announced that he was considering entering the race to become Mayor of London in the 2016 election.

On 4 September 2014, David Lammy announced his intention to seek the Labour nomination for the 2016 mayoral election.

David Lammy apologised "unreservedly" for breach of the Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations.

David Lammy endorsed Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner in the 2020 Labour leadership and deputy leadership elections.

David Lammy apologised in a letter to Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Kathryn Stone.

In January 2023, David Lammy visited Northern Ireland with Shadow Secretary Peter Kyle and Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Jenny Chapman, visiting Foyle Port to make a statement on the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Over his years in politics, David Lammy has publicly attributed blame for certain crimes to various specific causes and persons.

David Lammy has talked about black and ethnic minority peoples, especially those who are younger, their relation with crime and how they are treated by the criminal justice system.

On 11 August 2011, in an address to Parliament, David Lammy attributed part of the cause for England's riots of a few days earlier to destructive "cultures" that had emerged under the prevailing policies.

David Lammy stated that legislation restricting the degree of violence that parents are allowed to use when disciplining their children was partly to blame for current youth culture, that had contributed to the riots.

David Lammy has stated that the criminal justice system deals with "disproportionate numbers" of young people from black and ethnic minority communities: despite saying that although decisions to charge were "broadly proportionate", he has asserted that black and ethnic minority people still face and perceive bias.

David Lammy said that young black people are nine times more likely to be incarcerated than "comparable" white people, and proposed a number of measures including a system of "deferred prosecution" for young first time offenders to reduce incarcerations.

David Lammy has claimed that black and ethnic minority people offend "at the same rates" as comparable white people "when taking age and socioeconomic status into account"; however, they were more likely to be stopped and searched, if charged, more likely to be convicted, more likely to be sent to prison and less likely to get support in prison.

David Lammy has criticised the University of Oxford for admitting relatively few black students and students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

David Lammy believes the Windrush scandal concerns injustice to a generation who are British, have made their homes and worked in Britain and deserve to be treated better.

On 5 February 2013, David Lammy gave a speech in the House of Commons on why he would be voting in favour of the Marriage Bill 2013, critically comparing the relegation of British same-sex couples to civil partnerships to the "separate but equal" legal doctrine that justified Jim Crow laws in the 20th-century United States.

David Lammy published his report in September 2017, concluding that prosecutions against some BAME suspects should be delayed or dropped outright to mitigate racial bias.

David Lammy has spoken out against antisemitism within the Labour Party, and attended an Enough is Enough rally protesting against it.

David Lammy stated that antisemitism has "come back because extremism has come back" and is damaging support for Labour among Britain's Jewish community.

David Lammy is a member of Labour Friends of Israel.

David Lammy recorded a Channel 4 documentary for Remembrance Sunday called The Unremembered: Britain's Forgotten War Heroes, which was broadcast on 10 November 2019.

David Lammy, who was critical to bringing the matter to light, called this a "watershed moment".

In October 2022, David Lammy called for a full investigation into an alleged security breach by Suella Braverman.

David Lammy described the Grenfell Tower fire as "corporate manslaughter" and called for arrests to be made; his friend Khadija Saye died in the fire.

David Lammy criticised the authorities for failing to say how many people had died.

David Lammy has written about what he believes to be the shortcomings of the housing market.

David Lammy is a staunch advocate of British membership of the European Union.

On 23 June 2018, David Lammy appeared at the People's Vote march in London to mark the second anniversary of the referendum to leave the European Union.

David Lammy supports shared parental leave, which he maintains would "normalise" fathers being an equal parent with the mother, and would mean they become more involved in the raising of children, arguing that the barriers to "fathers playing a deeper role in family life" are not just legislative, but cultural.

In 2017, writing in The Guardian, David Lammy argued that Comic Relief perpetuated problematic stereotypes of Africa, and that they had a responsibility to use its powerful position to move the debate on in a more constructive way by establishing an image of African people as equals.

David Lammy's comments came after a video featuring Ed Sheeran meeting and rescuing a child in Liberia was criticised as "poverty porn" and was given the "Rusty Radiator" award for the 'most offensive and stereotypical fundraising video of the year'.

In February 2019, David Lammy criticised Stacey Dooley for photographs she posted on social media of her trip to Uganda for Comic Relief, and said that "the world does not need any more white saviours", and that she was "perpetuating 'tired and unhelpful stereotypes' about Africa".

David Lammy stated however, that he does not question her "good motives".

David Lammy responded to criticism with a statement in which he referred to the decline in donations being due to contributing factors of austerity, declining viewing figures, trends in the charity sector and format fatigue and that he hoped his comments "would inspire the charity to refresh its image and think harder about the effects its output has on our perceptions of Africa".

In January 2019, David Lammy described Rod Liddle having a column in a weekly newspaper as a "national disgrace" and accused Liddle of having "white middle class privilege" for expressing the view that absent fathers played a role in violent crime involving black youths.

David Lammy married the artist Nicola Green in 2005; the couple have two sons and a daughter.

Since 2019, David Lammy has received the highest income on top of his MP's salary amongst Labour Party MPs.