Sam Gyimah

Early life

Gyimah was born in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. When he was six years old, his parents split up and his mother returned to her native Ghana with Gyimah and his younger brother and sister while his father remained in the UK. For the next ten years, Gyimah attended Achimota School, a state school in Ghana, before returning to the UK to sit GCSEs and A-levels at Freman College, a state school in Buntingford, Hertfordshire. He then went on to Somerville College at the University of Oxford, where he read Politics, Philosophy and Economics, and where he was elected President of the Oxford Union.

Life and career

On graduation, Gyimah joined Goldman Sachs as an investment banker, leaving the company in 2003 to set up and act as a director for a series of businesses. In September 2005 Gyimah edited a report by the Bow Group, a Conservative think tank, entitled From the Ashes: the future of the Conservative Party. He was subsequently elected chairman of the Bow Group from 2006 to 2007. Gyimah stood unsuccessfully for election in Kilburn ward in the Camden Council election, 2006. In December 2009, Gyimah placed third in the Gosport primary election to succeed Peter Viggers, losing to Caroline Dinenage.

Parliamentary career

Following his appointment to the Conservative Party A-List, he was elected as the MP for East Surrey at the 2010 general election, Gyimah made his maiden speech on 29 July 2010. Gyimah has previously been a member of the International Development Select Committee, having stated an interest in harnessing the private sector towards achieving international development goals. Gyimah has also been active in debates on education and employment, as well as a number of local campaigns to protect the greenbelt in Surrey.

In 2011, Gyimah produced a report with think-tank NESTA, "Beyond the Banks", in support of non-bank alternatives for businesses seeking finance. He was the first MP to call for credit easing as a means of accelerating Britain's economic recovery.

Gyimah was appointed as a Government Whip in October 2013, having previously been Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Prime Minister since the 2012 reshuffle.

Gyimah supported the UK remaining in the European Union in the 2016 EU referendum.

On 20 November 2015, Gyimah contributed to the filibustering of the opposition-proposed Compulsory Emergency First Aid Education (State-Funded Secondary Schools) Bill to make the teaching of first aid in primary schools compulsory. He spoke until the end of the debate, despite requests from the deputy speaker.

On 21 October 2016, Gyimah filibustered the Sexual Offences (Pardons) bill (nicknamed the "Turing Bill" after Alan Turing), a private member's bill presented by Scottish National Party MP John Nicolson that would pardon all men convicted of abolished offences related to having same-sex relationships; subsequently, he was accused of "reinforc[ing] the age-old homophobic stereotypes of gay men as predatory and/or pedophiles" by having stated that the bill did not give enough safeguards to prevent men being accidentally pardoned for sex with a minor or non-consensual sex. Supporters of the bill disputed this as conditions for a pardon included the act being consensual and that it would not break modern British law. He was met with calls of "shame" toward the end of his speech. He instead supported an amendment proposed by the government to existing legislation, in which only dead men convicted of such offences were automatically pardoned while those who were living would have to apply through the Home Office through a "disregard" process.

Personal life

Gyimah has been a volunteer and fundraiser for Crisis, the Down's Syndrome Association and St. Catherine's Hospice in Surrey. He has served as school governor of an inner London school, on the board of a housing association and on the development board of Somerville College. He is a Vice-President of the Young Epilepsy charity (formerly the National Centre for Young People with Epilepsy (NCYPE) in Lingfield. Gyimah is married to Dr Nicky Black, a New Zealander with whom he has a son and a daughter.