Sayeeda Warsi is Shadow Communities Secretay

Sayeeda Warsi is a member of David Cameron's Shadow Cabinet and has been politically active from her early college days when she was elected as the Vice President of the Student Union. She was instrumental in the launch of Operation Black Vote in West Yorkshire in 1996 and she stood as a candidate in the 2005 general election. In June 2005, she was appointed a vice chairman of the Conservative Party with responsibility for cities. In June 2007, Sayeeda was appointed Shadow Minister for Community Cohesion and in October 2007 she was appointed Shadow Minister for Social Action.

She has always had a keen interest in racial justice issues. For many years she was an executive member of the Kirklees Racial Equality Council. She is also a member of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust's Racial Justice Committee and regularly represents them at national conferences.

She has been a speaker on issues as varied as forced marriages, prison conditions and business network links at a national level. She regularly shares a platform with leading parliamentarians from both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

Sayeeda was born in Dewsbury in 1971. She was educated at Birkdale High School and Dewsbury College, and then at the University of Leeds where she read law (LLB). She attended the York College of Law to complete the Legal Practice Course and then trained with the Crown Prosecution Service and the Home Office Immigration Department.

After qualifying as a Solicitor, Sayeeda worked for John Whitfield, the last Conservative Member of Parliament for Dewsbury, at Whitfield Hallam Goodall Solicitors; Sayeeda then went on to set up her own specialist practice George Warsi Solicitors in Dewsbury.

Sayeeda has worked overseas on a research project on forced marriages for the Ministry of Law in Pakistan and for the women's empowerment charity - the Savayra Foundation.