Sayeeda Warsi, Baroness Warsi

On 2 July 2007, Warsi was appointed Shadow Minister for Community Cohesion.[13] To enable her to fulfil this post, she was created a life peer as Baroness Warsi, of Dewsbury in the County of West Yorkshire, on 11 October 2007[14] and was introduced in the House of Lords on 15 October 2007.[15] On joining the House of Lords, she became its youngest member.[16]

On 1 December 2007, Warsi travelled to Khartoum with the Labour peer Lord Ahmed to mediate in the Sudanese teddy bear blasphemy case. Prime Minister Gordon Brown commended both peers for their efforts regarding the issue.[17][18]

Lady Warsi with Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in 2010

On 12 May 2010, David Cameron appointed Warsi as Minister without Portfolio in Cabinet, when she succeeded Eric Pickles as Chairman of the Conservative Party. This appointment made Warsi the first Muslim woman to serve in the Cabinet.[19] Warsi was sworn into the Privy Council the next day.[20]

Following David Cameron's first Cabinet reshuffle in September 2012, Warsi was appointed to the restyled post of "Senior Minister of State" in the Foreign Office and Minister for Faith and Communities in the Department of Communities and Local Government (a role created specifically for her in a ministry she had shadowed in Opposition). Warsi was replaced as Conservative Party chairman by Grant Shapps.[21][22]

Lady Warsi meeting Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Rassoul in Kabul in 2013

At the Foreign Office she was responsible for country-specific policies concerning Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh along with international organisations and leading FCO business in the House of Lords[23]

At the Department for Communities and Local Government Lady Warsi worked with religious and community leaders to promote faith, religious tolerance and stronger communities within the UK.[24]

Warsi established and co-chaired HM Government's first Ministerial Task Force on Islamic Finance.[25][26][27] At the World Islamic Economic Forum, the UK Government announced that Warsi would chair a new Global Islamic Finance and Investment Group.[28]

Warsi at Kutupalong Refugee Camp for Rohingya in Bangladesh in 2013.[29]

In a public speech at Washington D.C. in 2013, Warsi highlighted persecution of Christians in parts of the world.[30]

The gay rights organisation Stonewall along with several Labour politicians questioned her suitability for a high-profile Conservative Party role owing to leaflets issued during her 2005 election campaign that contained views which they said were homophobic.[31] On a 2009 episode of Question Time, Warsi was supportive of same-sex civil partnerships[32] Speaking in December 2013 at a BNP Paribas event in support for the Kaleidoscope Trust, she apologised for her leaflets and said the Conservative Party had been "on the wrong side of history" on gay rights.[33]

Lady Warsi with Amnesty youth activists who handed over a petition on Afghan women's rights in 2013.

Following a confrontation in November 2009 by a group of protestors in Luton accusing her of not being a proper Muslim, a man was jailed for six weeks for a public order offence of throwing an egg at Warsi.[34][35]

Warsi argued against following the example of France by banning Muslim women from wearing the veil, as this was "not the British way" although commenting that those who choose to wear garments such as the full-face veil must accept that there are some situations in which it is not appropriate.[36][37]

In 2009, she was named as "Britain's most powerful Muslim woman" by an Equality and Human Rights Commission panel and in 2010 as one of the world's "500 most influential Muslims" by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, a Middle East think tank.[38][39][40]

In the April 2016 issue of Dabiq Magazine, The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant declared her a murtadd (or apostate) for being among a group of "overt crusaders" who "directly involve themselves in politics and enforcing the laws of kufr".[41]

On 20 June 2016, three days before the referendum on membership of the European Union, Warsi said that she could no longer support the Leave campaign because of what she claimed was its xenophobia, and would vote to remain within the EU. A spokesman for Vote Leave said that they were not aware that Warsi had ever been a supporter.[42]

In May 2018, Warsi stated that the Prime Minister, Theresa May should publicly acknowledge that Islamophobia was a problem in the Conservative Party and that the party was in denial about the problem."[43][44][45][46]

In July that year, a week after the Muslim Council of Britain repeated its call for an independent inquiry into Islamophobia and accused the Conservatives of turning a blind eye to Islamophobia claims,[47] Warsi called on the Conservatives to launch a "full independent inquiry" into Islamophobia in the party. She accused Conservative Chair Brandon Lewis of a "woefully inept" response to recent complaints and added that MP Zac Goldsmith should receive "mandatory diversity training" following his unsuccessful attempt to beat Sadiq Khan to become Mayor of London.[48]

Warsi and Cardinal Nichols in 2012

In September 2010, during the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to England and Scotland, Warsi said the Labour Government appeared to have viewed religion as "essentially a rather quaint relic of our pre-industrial history. They were also too suspicious of faith's potential for contributing to society – behind every faith-based charity, they sensed the whiff of conversion and exclusivity. And because of these prejudices they didn't create policies to unleash the positive power of faith in our society."[49]

She returned to this theme, as a Cabinet minister, in February 2012, saying "Britain is under threat from a rising tide of militant secularisation", before an official visit to the Vatican to mark the 30th anniversary of the re-establishment of full diplomatic ties between the UK and the Vatican.[50]

She added, "I am not calling for some kind of 21st century theocracy. Religious faith and its followers do not have the only answer. There will be times when politicians and faith leaders will disagree. What is more, secularism is not intrinsically damaging. My concern is when secularisation is pushed to an extreme, when it requires the complete removal of faith from the public sphere".[51] A Muslim herself, Warsi says that Europe needs to be "more confident and more comfortable in its Christianity".[50]

On the Church of England, she insists she had "no doubts whatsoever" about maintaining its position as the Established Church, describing it as a "bedrock" of society. She believes "the system works": "We have an Established Church", it has "a unique position" and an "obligation to all of its parishioners irrespective of their faith". She thinks "it is an incredibly positive aspect of our life in Britain and long may it continue."[52]

In November 2013, Warsi told an audience at the University of Cambridge that faith was being put back at the "heart of government", as it had been under Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. The Coalition, she argued, is one of the "most pro-faith governments in the West ... More often than not, people who do God do good." She said that religious groups must be allowed to provide public services without the State being "suspicious of their motives". Quoting Thatcher she said, "I wonder whether the State services would have done as much for the man who fell among thieves as the Good Samaritan did for him?"[52]

In May 2012, Warsi apologised for failing to declare rental income in the Lords' Register of Interests. Declaring the fact of income, but not the amount, is necessary for rental income over £5,000.[60]

On 27 May 2012, criticisms of her claims for parliamentary expenses were reported. The Labour Opposition urged a full police investigation into her expenses after it was alleged that she claimed up to £2,000 in rent despite staying rent-free in the London home of a Conservative Party donor, Dr Wafik Moustafa. Moustafa claims that he received no money from Warsi. Though he stated it was not personal, Moustafa was in a political dispute with Warsi concerning the Conservative Arab Network.[61]

Labour MP John Mann expressed his intention to refer these claims to the Lords Commissioner for Standards, but Warsi pre-empted this by referring them herself.[62]

Sir Alex Allan found Warsi to have twice breached the Ministerial Code, though he concluded these were minor and noted that she had apologised. The first was in relation to a trip to Pakistan where she failed to declare that she was being accompanied by a business partner but Sir Alex found that even were Baroness Warsi to have declared the relationship it would not have prevented the trip from going ahead. The second was when she invited her business partner (Abid Hussain) to meet David Cameron at a Number 10 Downing Street Eid event.[63]

The Conservative Party leadership was criticised in some quarters for holding Baroness Warsi to account on the Ministerial Code while apparently having a more relaxed approach to Jeremy Hunt, who was Culture Secretary at that time.[64] Following the publication of the report, David Cameron said Baroness Warsi would remain in her job.[63]

• She was given a Life Peerage on 11 October 2007 allowing her to sit in the House of Lords. She sits on the Conservative Party Benches. She was introduced in the House of Lords on 15 October 2007. She took the title of Baroness Warsi, of Dewsbury in the County of West Yorkshire.

Commonwealth honours

Country	Date	Appointment	Post-nominal letters
United Kingdom	13 May 2010 – Present	Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council[67][68]	PC

Foreign honours

Country	Date	Appointment	Post-nominal letters
Pakistan	23 March 2020 – Present	Sitara-e-Pakistan	[69][70]

University degrees

Location	Date	School	Degree
England	1987 – 1989	Dewsbury College	[71]
England	1992	University of Leeds	Bachelor of Laws (LL.B)
England		The College of Law, York	Legal Practice Course (LPC)[72]

Chancellor, visitor, governor, and fellowships

Location	Date	School	Position
England	September 2015 –	St Mary's University, Twickenham	Visiting Professor[73]
England	13 January 2016 –	University of Bolton	Pro-vice-chancellor[74][75]
England		Bolton College	Governor[76]

Honorary degrees

Location	Date	School	Degree	Gave Commencement Address
England	24 July 2015	Aston University	Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.)[77]
England	July 2015	University of Bolton	Doctor of Social Science (D.SSc.)[78][79]
England	April 2017	University of Law	Doctorate[72]
England	January 2018	Birmingham City University	Doctorate[80]

In December 2016, Warsi took a cameo role in the BBC One sitcom Citizen Khan.[92] In 2022 she appeared alongside Alastair Campbell as one of the political experts on Channel 4's Make Me Prime Minister.[93] She also took part in a special episode of comedy panel show Taskmaster which aired on a New Year's Day of 2022.[94]