Syed Kamall

Syed Salah Kamall, Baron Kamall (born 15 February 1967) is a Professor of Politics and International Relations at St Mary’s University, Twickenham and the Academic & Research Director at the Institute of Economic Affairs, a classical liberal think tank in London. He writes on politics, foreign affairs and international trade.
He is a former British politician who represented London as a Member of the European Parliament for the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2019. He served on the International Trade and Economic and Monetary Affairs Committees.
From 2013 to 2014 he served as Leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament. In June 2014, Kamall was elected Leader of the European Conservatives and Reformists in the European Parliament.
In December 2020, it was announced he would be conferred a Life Peerage after a nomination by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Biography.
Kamall was born in Hornsey and brought up in Edmonton, London. He is a Muslim, and of Indo-Guyanese descent; his father migrated to London from Guyana in the 1950s.
He was educated at The Latymer School in Edmonton and holds a BEng from the University of Liverpool, a MSc degree from the London School of Economics and a PhD from City, University of London.
Early career.
Kamall started his career as a business systems analyst for NatWest Overseas Department (1989–91). He was a Management Fellow, University of Bath School of Management (1994–96), Management Research Fellow, Leeds University Business School (1996–97), Associate Director/Consultant, Omega Partners (1997–2001), and a Consultant at SSK Consulting (2001–05). Since 2004 he has been a Visiting Fellow at Leeds University Business School where he has lectured MBA students on international business and strategy, and supervised doctoral students' research.
Before entering the European Parliament, Kamall worked as a consultant to companies on marketing, strategy and public affairs. In 2003, he started a diversity recruitment business. He is a co-founder of the Global Business Research Institute (GBRI), an educational body conducting outreach to business executives, journalists and civil servants, promoting a greater understanding of globalisation and its consequences.
Publications.
In 1996, Kamall wrote a book on EU telecommunications policy, and has written on multinational business and telecommunications policy for such books as "Management in China: The Experience of Foreign Businesses"; "Trade and Investment in China: The European Experience"; "Political and Economic Relations Between Asia and Europe: New Challenges in Economics and Management", and in such journals as "Management International Review" and "Transnational Corporations".
Political career.
Kamall has been a member of the Conservatives since 1987 and has held various positions in the party since then: Chairman, Stockwell Ward, Vauxhall Conservative Association; Hon. Secretary, Bath Conservative Association CPC; Chairman, Eccleston Ward, and Chairman, Eccleston/Churchill CPC, Cities of London and Westminster Conservative Association; Executive Member, London Eastern Area Committee.
In May 2000, Kamall was a Conservative Candidate for the London Assembly. The following year, he was Conservative candidate for West Ham in the June 2001 General Election. He was placed fourth on the Conservative list in London for the 2004 European Parliament elections. The Conservatives won three seats and Kamall became a Member of the European Parliament in May 2005, after Theresa Villiers stepped down on being elected as an MP to the UK Parliament. In the European Parliament, he was a member of the Economic and Monetary Affairs, Legal Affairs and International Trade committees.
Kamall was placed on the "A-list" of Conservative parliamentary candidates ahead of the 2010 election and was again returned to Brussels in 2014 representing London as an MEP.
He is also a contributor at the free market public policy think tank The Cobden Centre, one of Europe's think tanks based around the Austrian School of economics.
In October 2018, during a debate in which Udo Bullman, the German leader of the Socialists and Democrats Group linked the political right to extremism, Kamall responded by saying that Nazis were National Socialists who followed left wing policies. There was an angry reaction from the left and he apologised for the offence caused. However, he was angered himself when Udo Bullmann, issued a press release which falsely accused Kamall of calling the S&D Nazis.
In the 2019 European Parliament election, Syed Kamall lost his seat in the European Parliament.
In December 2020, it was announced he would be conferred a Life Peerage after a nomination by Prime Minister Boris Johnson as part of the 2020 Political Honours list. In January 2021, he was elevated to the Lords as Baron Kamall, of Edmonton in the London Borough of Enfield.
Personal life.
Kamall follows Islam. He is married to Sandira Beekoo.
After leaving the European Parliament, Syed Kamall became the Academic and Research Director at the Institute of Economic Affairs and Professor of International Relations and Politics at St Mary%27s University, Twickenham.
Kamall plays bass guitar and sings in a blues band called Exiled in Brussels. The lead guitarist is Latvian MEP Roberts Zīle; the drummer who also plays other instruments is Kārlis Būmeisters, who represented Latvia in the Eurovision song contest in 2005. Bumeisters is a well known musician in Latvia, who worked as Roberts Zile’s press officer.