Paul Yaw Boateng, Baron Boateng of Akyem and Wembley, is a British politician and the first person of African descent to serve in a British cabinet.
He was born on June 14, 1951, in London, England to Eleanor Boateng and Kwaku Boateng, a lawyer and a cabinet minister during the Nkrumah era.
He had his early education in Ghana at the Ghana International School and Accra Academy, both in Ghana.
Lord Paul Boateng’s life in Ghana came to an end when the Kwame Nkrumah Government was overthrown in 1966 and his father thrown into prison by the military leaders.
He relocated to the United Kingdom in 1966 with his sister, Rosemary and his mother.
He received a Law degree from the University of Bristol and became a solicitor focusing on housing, police and women’s issues.
In 1981, Barron Boateng won an election to the Greater London Council.
He served in the House of Commons alongside Bernie Grant, Diane Abbott and Keith Vaz, who were the few black people in the British Parliament.
In 1988, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference honoured Lord Boateng as the recipient of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Award for his contributions to the field of civil rights.
He was unsuccessful as a Labour Party candidate for the House of Commons in 1983 but was elected to the body in 1987, becoming one of the first persons of African descent to win a seat in the House of Commons.
After the Labour Party won the 1997 elections in Britain, he served in the capacity of the junior government Minister for Health and Home Affairs and also as financial secretary to the Treasury.
In May 2002, he was appointed the first black British cabinet secretary when he was appointed as chief secretary to the Treasury.
He retired from the cabinet and from the House of Commons in 2005.
In 2003 he was named on the list of "100 Great Black Britons".
He received honorary Doctor of Law degrees from West London University on 25 July 2018, Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) in 2004 and the University of Bristol in 2007.
Baron Paul Yaw Boateng was made a member of the House of Lords in 2010 and on June 27, 2010, he was named ‘Baron Boateng, of Akyem in the Republic of Ghana and of Wembley in the London Borough of Brent’.
He was introduced to the Lords on July 1, 2010.