Katie Lam

Katie Jane Lotte Lam is a British Conservative politician and former banker who has been Member of Parliament for Weald of Kent and Opposition Assistant Whip since 2024. Lam's paternal grandfather's family is of Dutch Jewish descent and her paternal grandmother's family were from Germany and included a left-wing senator representing Saxony. Her grandmother's family fled from Nazi Germany as refugees to England, escaping political persecution. Most of her grandfather's family was killed in the Holocaust though a few survivors also came to the UK as refugee. Her father's parents met while delivering leaflets for the Labour Party in the 1940s. Lam frequently references these stories of her ancestors. In her maiden speech in UK parliament she said "[Britain] saved my family and saved the free world”. In other speeches she has again remarked how the UK saved her ancestors: “I stand here only because this country offered them hope when tyranny had taken everything else.” She became a special adviser to Boris Johnson in 2019 after meeting Andrew Griffith at the Conservative Party conference. Working as Johnson's deputy Chief of Staff she became known for her work ethic and regularly slept at her desk during the COVID-19 pandemic. She left the Johnson administration in early 2021 after an incident where Carrie Johnson's dog, Dilyn was about to urinate on Lam's handbag and Lam had to intervene. Lam became infamous in October 2024 when interviewed for The Sunday Times she said "a large number of people in this country who came here legally, but in effect shouldn’t have been able to do so. It’s not the fault of the individuals who came here; they just shouldn’t have been able to do so. They will also need to go home." In September 2024 during a debate in Westminster hall she said "It is our sacred duty to put them first, and to act in their interests and their interests alone." This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Katie_Lam, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License