Katie Lam is the Conservative MP for Weald of Kent, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 election, Lam won 20,202 votes, representing 39.8% of the vote. The Labour candidate, Lenny Rolles, received 11,780 votes (23.2%), while the Reform UK candidate, Daniel Kersten, secured 10,208 votes (20.1%). Lam was duly elected with a majority of 8,422 votes.

The Weald of Kent constituency is located in Kent in the South East of England and was newly created for the 2024 general election. It was formed from parts of the former Ashford, Faversham and Mid Kent, and Maidstone and the Weald constituencies.

Political Career

Lam currently serves as shadow secretary of state for housing, communities and local government. Lam was appointed to this role as part of the August/September 2026 shadow cabinet reshuffle, Kemi Badenoch’s second as Conservative leader.

Lam served as a shadow Home Office minister and opposition assistant whip on the Conservative frontbench from November 2024 to August 2026.

Lam is considered a rising star in the Conservative Party and has even been tipped as a future leader.

In an October 2025 Telegraph interview, Lam dismissed speculation that she could succeed Kemi Badenoch as Conservative leader as a “distraction”.

In the same interview, Lam referred to the grooming gangs scandal as “the greatest stain on this country in the 20th and 21st centuries. And, specifically, the greatest failing of the British state over the last 100 years – the systematic failure to protect tens of thousands of children; some estimates go up to 100,000.”

In April 2025, a speech Lam delivered from the opposition dispatch box on the subject of grooming gangs went viral. The Conservative MP used “extremely graphic” language.

She declared: “The British people deserve to know the truth. What darker truths does the suffering of those girls reveal about this country – and why will the government not find out?”

In an October 2025 interview with the Times, Lam said she believed large numbers of people with legal status in the UK would need to have their right to stay revoked and should “go home”.

She said: “There are also 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. What that will leave is a mostly but not entirely culturally coherent group of people.”

In April 2026, Lam dismissed speculation that she would defect to Reform UK.

Lam has sat as a member of the House of Commons transport select committee (2024-2026).

Lam is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for British Sign Language, classics (co-chair), wine of Great Britain and woods and trees.

Lam delivered her maiden speech on 21 October 2024 during a debate on the Employment Rights Bill.

In it, she said: “I am not the first politician in my family. My grandmother came to Britain in 1937 at the age of 13 as a refugee from Germany. Her grandfather, Paul Heide, was a state senator and a fierce critic of the Nazis. When Hitler came to power, the whole family were arrested and stripped of their citizenship.

“After years in prison, Paul jumped out of the window of his second-floor cell and made it to Czechoslovakia despite his broken ankle. There, the family set up a resistance radio station broadcasting back over the border, until one night they were raided by the SS and one of the operators was shot dead.

“They managed to escape, and fled to England and freedom. My grandfather’s family were far less fortunate: Jews from Amsterdam, almost all of them were murdered in Sobibor and Auschwitz. One of them was eight years old.”

She added: “My grandparents’ stories helped make me who I am, so even as a small child, I already knew the power of politics.

“It is an honour to take my place in parliament, to serve my constituents and this country – the country that saved my family and saved the free world – but freedom does not come for free: it must be fought for. Every time I come into this chamber, I see the shields that surround us and think of our country’s sacrifice.”

Political Views

Leadership elections

Tory leadership 2024: Lam supported Robert Jenrick’s candidacy in the 2024 Conservative Party leadership election. The contest was triggered by the resignation of Rishi Sunak following the party’s defeat in the 2024 general election.

Jenrick, a former immigration minister, positioned himself on the right wing of the party, advocating for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). He emerged as an early frontrunner, topping the first two parliamentary ballots. After reaching the final two, he was defeated in the membership vote by Kemi Badenoch, receiving 41,388 votes (43.5%) compared to Badenoch’s 53,806 (56.5%).

Assisted dying

Lam voted against the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at both second reading (November 2024) and third reading (June 2025).

Before Politics

Born in August 1991, Lam attended Guildford County School and studied classics at Trinity College, Cambridge. During her time at university, Lam was elected president of the Cambridge Union and chairman of the Cambridge University Conservative Association.

After graduating, Lam worked at the investment bank Goldman Sachs for six years, reaching the position of vice president.

She subsequently served as a special adviser (SpAd) in government roles, including as deputy chief of staff in 10 Downing Street under Boris Johnson (2020-2021) and as head of the prime minister’s business team (2019-2020).

Lam was special adviser to the home secretary from 2022 to 2023.

Personal Life

Lam’s paternal grandparents met while distributing Labour Party leaflets in the 1940s.

Trivia

Lam is also an award-winning lyricist and scriptwriter. She has co-written five musicals alongside Alex Parker.