Early life
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 moved as refugees to England to escape political persecution. Most of her grandfather's family was killed in the Holocaust. Her father's parents met while delivering leaflets for the Labour Party in the 1940s. [3]
Lam was educated at her local comprehensive,Guildford County School,where she was head girl. [4] The school did not teach Latin or Greek,so she learned those independently,going on to study classics at Trinity College,Cambridge. [5]
While at Cambridge she was elected president of the Cambridge Union and chairman of the Cambridge University Conservative Association. [6] As president of the Union she was criticised by women's groups for inviting Dominique Strauss-Kahn after he had resigned after being accused of sexual assault. [7] She defended the decision saying "He hasn't been found guilty of anything and it's not up to us to judge him". [8]
Parliamentary career
Lam was selected in the safe seat of Weald of Kent in September 2023 ahead of the 2024 election. [6] She gained the seat with 39.8 % of the vote,a majority of 8422,but a fall of 32 share points on 2019. [13]
In the 2024 Conservative Party leadership election,she supported Robert Jenrick. [3] Kemi Badenoch appointed her as a junior whip in the government. [14] She was later appointed as Home Office shadow minister. [15] According to The Guardian in 2025 she is a "disciple" of Dominic Cummings [16] and a "rising star" in the Conservative Party,tipped as a future leader. [17] At the Margaret Thatcher Conference,held in March 2025,Lam said that the Conservative Party should end its "obsession" with Thatcher,saying that while Thatcher "correctly diagnosed" issues about the state of the world,it does not "help or serve" the party in 2025. [18]
Lam described the grooming gangs scandal as "the greatest stain on this country in the 20th and 21st centuries". [15] In April 2025,she gave a speech in the Commons in which she used graphic language to describe gang rape. The speech was poorly received by other parliamentarians but went viral on social media. [15] [19] In October 2025,in an interview with The Sunday Times ,Lam stated that a large number of people legally resident in the UK should have their right to remain revoked and be sent "home." She argued this was necessary to create a "mostly but not entirely culturally coherent group of people." The comments were strongly condemned by Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey,who described them as "deeply concerning and unpatriotic" in a letter to the Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch. [20] Badenoch's spokesperson said that Lam's views were "broadly in line" with Conservative policy. [21] Soon after,on 30 October,Badenoch clarified that Lam had spoken 'imprecisely' and that it was not,in fact,Conservative Party policy to retrospectively revoke the status of legally settled people. This followed several Conservative MPs privately criticising Lam's remarks and complaining to the party whips. She retained her Shadow Cabinet position despite calls from Liberal Democrats Home Affairs spokesperson Max Wilkinson to fire her. [22]
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