Paul Boateng

Paul Yaw Boateng, Baron Boateng, (born 14 June 1951) is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent South from 1987 to 2005, becoming the UK's first Black Cabinet Minister in May 2002, when he was appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

Boateng's life in Ghana came to an abrupt end after his father went to jail in 1966 following a military coup, which toppled the Ghanaian government.

His father was imprisoned without trial for four years.

Boateng, then aged 15, and his sister, Rosemary, fled to the UK with their mother.

They settled in Hemel Hempstead, where he attended Apsley Grammar School.

He later read law at the University of Bristol where he resided at Wills Hall and was a member of the Barneys Club.

He began his career in civil rights, originally as a solicitor, though he later retrained as a barrister.

He worked primarily on social and community cases, starting under renowned civil rights advocate Benedict Birnberg, involving women's rights, housing and police complaints, including a period from 1977 to 1981 as the legal advisor for the Scrap Sus Campaign.

Boateng was also an executive member of the National Council for Civil Liberties.

He represented Cherry Groce, a mother of six who was shot and paralysed by a police officer during a raid on her home, in search for her son.

He became a partner at the firm B. M. Birnberg & Co., and as a barrister, he practised at Eight King's Bench Walk.

Like many other members of Labour's left-wing in the 1980s, he became more moderate under the leadership of Neil Kinnock.

In 1981, Boateng was elected to represent Walthamstow on Greater London Council, of which Ken Livingstone became leader shortly after the election.

As chair of the GLC's police committee and vice-chair of its ethnic minorities committee, Boateng advocated greater accountability in the Metropolitan Police and spoke out against racism in relation to their dealings with the African Caribbean and Asian communities.

He unsuccessfully stood as a parliamentary candidate for Hertfordshire West (which included his former home town of Hemel Hempstead) at the 1983 general election.

He was elected at the general election of 1987, when he became the MP for Brent South in succession to Laurence Pavitt, being one of the first four non-white British MPs, elected alongside fellow Labour Party Black Sections members Bernie Grant, Diane Abbott and Keith Vaz.

During his victory speech, Boateng said: "We can never be free in Brent until South Africa is free too."

He then declared: "Today Brent South, tomorrow Soweto!"

For instance, Boateng refused to join the Parliamentary Black Caucus founded by Diane Abbott, Bernie Grant, Keith Vaz and Lord David Pitt, Baron Pitt of Hampstead in 1988, which eventually collapsed.

Kinnock rewarded Boateng by making him a junior Treasury spokesman in 1989, and then the first Black person to join the front bench as a party spokesperson.

Boateng's portfolio included economics, industrial strategies and corporate responsibility.

In 1992, he became shadow minister for the Lord Chancellor's Department, a post he held until the 1997 general election, where he was a strong advocate for increasing pro bono legal services among UK law firms.

With Labour's landslide victory in 1997, Boateng became the UK's first black government minister as Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health, where he was responsible for social services, mental health and disabled people.

In that position, he published guidelines to end the denial of adoptions purely on the basis of race.

In 1998, Boateng became a Minister of State at the Home Office and subsequently became Number 2 Minister there.

He was made a Privy Councillor in 1999.

He earned a reputation for being tough on crime, particularly with regard to aggressive begging on the streets.

He also worked with Eric Holder, then United States Deputy Attorney-General, and Louis Freeh, then Director of the FBI, on issues related to international drug trafficking and interdiction.

Boateng's portfolio was expanded in 2000, and he became the first Minister for Young People, where his priority was to listen to and be a voice for Britain's youth.

He launched the Youth, Citizenship and Social Change programme, then the UK's largest research project designed to examine social exclusion and promoting citizenship among young people.

He also played a leading role in establishing and launching the £450,000,000 Children's Fund designed to tackle child poverty.

Boateng's ministerial colleagues encouraged him to stand as the Labour candidate to be the Mayor of London; however, he ruled himself out and strongly criticised his former GLC colleague Ken Livingstone.

Boateng supported the candidacy of Frank Dobson, with whom he had served in the Department of Health.

In 2001, Boateng was made Financial Secretary to the Treasury, and was promoted to the position of Chief Secretary to the Treasury in May 2002, becoming Britain's first black cabinet minister.

He was quoted as saying: "My colour is part of me but I do not choose to be defined by my colour."

Following his departure from the House of Commons, he served as the British High Commissioner to South Africa from March 2005 to May 2009.

He was introduced as a member of the House of Lords on 1 July 2010.

Boateng was born in Hackney, London, of mixed Ghanaian and Scottish heritage; his family later moved to Ghana when Boateng was four years old.

His father, Kwaku Boateng, was a lawyer and Cabinet Minister during Kwame Nkrumah's regime.

Boateng had his early education at Ghana International School and attended Accra Academy, a high school in Ghana.