Syed Kamall spoke with the London Daily News and underlined his commitment to represent Londoners in Brussels.

By John Kaponi
Editor-in-Chief
London Daily News

Having just won a second term in Brussels Syed Kamall ranked as one of the UK's "best-value MEPs" according to the Taxpayers' Alliance, and strongly tipped to be heading for Westminster spoke with the London Daily News in an exclusive interview.

The Conservative party was the clear winner at the recent European parliamentary elections with three of its candidates elected to represent London in Brussels, but what should we expect from our MEP's?

Syed Kamall an LSE graduate with a PhD from City University epitomises the new breed of Conservative politician David Cameron is trying to fast track into its upper echelons.

Kamall highlights the new emphasis given in the Conservative Party to successful business people and academics that are not the product of the Westminster village, but have worked and established successful careers; and are involved in politics to genuinely "make a difference to British political life".

"My job has always been to stand up for London and standing up for businesses and the London way of life.  One thing I like about London is how diverse London is, we have over 300 languages spoken and 14 religions, I am of course biased because I was born and bred in London, and this is the most amazing city".

An engineering graduate from Liverpool University, Syed Kamall went on to the LSE to study technology and policy going on to work for Natwest for a couple of years, discovering that the corporate life was not fulfilling; to then complete a PhD at City University in social sciences focusing on radical organisational change in eastern Europe.

"I lectured for two years at Bath University on international business, a year at Leeds University and then consulted.  I was always interested in politics because of my family. My father was interested in politics because my grandfather was involved in politics in Guyana."

My father came to the UK in the 1950s, worked as a fireman and a guard on the railways and later became a bus driver.  He used to say to me if you are prepared to work hard and believe in yourself you can achieve anything in your life".

Questioned on how he finally got involved with the Conservative Party Kamall's response and motivation was all down partly to the patronising approach Labour showed to individuals from ethnic minorities

"You should be Labour because we look after people 'like you'," was the response one Labour activist gave to Kamall in the 1980s.

"But if you looked at the conditions under which immigrant communities lived in areas with Labour run councils they were often the worst."

In terms of his affinity and background Kamall said:

"I am a Londoner first, but I let people define who I am.  Some label me a Londoner, some people label me a Muslim, some people label me Asian".

With leading political journalists like Benedict Brogan predicting in the Daily Telegraph that up to 100 conservative MP's out 193 could be receiving their P45's from Conservative central office in the next months, this will open the door to candidates like Kamall.

The transformation that is taking place so rapidly in British politics and being driven by young leaders like David Cameron will see Kamall and others like Adam Afriyie and Baroness Warsi become an integral part of this change in the new demographics of British politics.

Profile:

Name:  Syed Kamall
Age:   42
Born:  London
Education:

•             Latymer School, Edmonton.
  

•            Liverpool University,
•            Msc London School of Economics
•            PhD City University, London.

Career:    A consultant to companies on marketing, strategy and public
affairs.
Family:  Married with two sons

Sports and interest:  Cricket, football, touch rugby, played electric bass

Languages spoken:  English, French. Learning Spanish and Arabic.

photo credit: London Daily News Syed Kamall