Who is Priti Patel? Former home secretary hopes to secure Tory leadership

The contest to succeed Rishi Sunak as head of the Conservative Party has begun.

The six contenders hoping to take the leadership role include Dame Priti Patel, Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick, Mel Stride, and Tom Tugendhat.

The candidates, which will be reduced to a shortlist of four through a series of hustings when parliament reconvenes from its summer break on September 2, had to have the support of at least 10 Tory MPs in order for a nomination to be included.

The last four candidates to present their case to party members at the Conservative conference this autumn will be chosen by Tory MPs on September 4.

Tory MPs will narrow those four down to the last two on October 10. Party members will then cast online ballots on October 31 to determine the winner, which will be revealed on November 2.

Patel resigned as home secretary in September 2022 and returned to the backbenches when Johnson was replaced by the short-lived leadership of Liz Truss.

She is the Conservative MP for Witham and in September 2023 received a damehood for her political services. 

So who exactly is Priti Patel? Let’s get to know the former home secretary. 

The London-born married mother of one studied economics at Keele University and completed postgraduate studies at the University of Essex. 

Having worked in consultancy and PR for several years, Priti then decided to step into the political arena. She was first elected as the MP for Witham, Essex, in 2010 and has kept a grip on her seat in four consecutive elections since. 

In 2006, Ms Patel said she was in favour of the “ultimate punishment” for the worst crimes in 2006 and, during a Question Time debate in 2011, supported the death penalty – although she has since insisted her comments were taken out of context.

Between 2014 and 2017, Patel had several ministerial jobs, including Secretary of State for International Development, Minister of State for Employment and Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury. 

She remained a backbencher until 2019, when she was appointed home secretary. 

Priti Patel is seen by some as a hardline politician and, in some instances, controversial. 

Mr Johnson himself described Ms Patel as a “hardline” home secretary, even joking that, under her, the UK could become the “Saudi Arabia of penal policy”.

During her tenure, Ms Patel was accused of bullying staff; became embroiled in a war of words with France over tackling the growing numbers of migrants crossing the English Channel; was dogged by criticism from campaigners over a wave of sweeping immigration and asylum reforms amid accusations her policies were “anti-refugee”; and fell out of favour with the police in a row over pay freezes.

But her supporters when she was home secretary praised her for taking what has been described as a fair but firm and no-nonsense approach on difficult subjects that prompt debate.

In April 2022 Ms Patel signed what she branded a “world-first” agreement to send migrants deemed to have arrived in the UK illegally to Rwanda – a policy that met strong opposition within her party and beyond because of concerns over the east African nation’s track record on human rights among other factors.

The first deportation flight was grounded by legal challenges and the legality of the policy was called into question in a High Court battle.

Mr Johnson famously vowed to “stick with Prit” after bullying allegations emerged and his then adviser on ministerial standards, Sir Alex Allan, quit his post when the Prime Minister overruled his conclusion that she had breached the Ministerial Code.

The fallout resulted in former Home Office permanent secretary Sir Philip Rutnam accepting a six-figure sum from the Government after launching legal action against her following his dramatic resignation in 2020. At the time,  he accused her of bullying subordinates and carrying out a “vicious and orchestrated” briefing campaign against him.

That same year, while there were growing tensions between the Government and the legal profession, Ms Patel caused a storm with an “ill-advised” tweet about the deaths of 39 migrants in Essex while a people-smuggling trial was under way. This prompted a judge to direct jurors to ignore comments made by politicians on social media.

Mr Johnson stood by Ms Patel again in 2021 over more claims of Ministerial Code breaches following allegations she arranged a meeting between a billionaire Tory donor and British Airways.

This came as she was accused of “running scared” after reportedly cancelling an in-person appearance at a police conference as high-ranking officers set out plans to withdraw from a pay review system and take legal action over pensions.

Earlier in 2021 the Police Federation of England and Wales said it no longer had confidence in her as home secretary after a bitterly opposed pay freeze for officers was confirmed.

She has also clashed with others over racism. Patel hit back at a group of black, Asian and minority ethnic Labour MPs who accused her of using her Ugandan-Indian heritage to cast doubt on black communities’ experience of racism, telling them she refused to “take lectures” on prejudice as she described being frequently racially abused.

Despite her condemnation of racism faced by England footballers, she was also criticised for describing the action of players taking the knee as “gesture politics”.

In a letter to Mr Johnson setting out her plan to resign after Liz Truss takes office as prime minister, Ms Patel said it had been the “honour of my life” to serve as home secretary and that she would “continue my public service to the country and the Witham constituency from the backbenches” once a successor is appointed.

As home secretary during the pandemic, Patel had an active role in how Covid-19 was managed in the UK. 

She made several appearances during the daily pandemic press conference, addressing the nation about current Covid-19 updates. She reportedly also argued for stronger border restrictions but was overruled. 

Speaking about her stance at the Conservative Friends of India group in 2021, she said: “On ‘should we have closed our borders earlier’ the answer is yes, I was an advocate of closing them last March.”

In 2021, Labour claimed that Ms Patel was lobbying ministers to help land a PPE face mask contract for a Tory donor.