Gujarati Shriti Vadera:Britain’s Real No.2 After Gordon Brown
London, DeshGujarat
Britain’s no. 2 powerful person is a Gujarati woman. She is Shriti Vadera a newly appointed Junior International Development Minister of Britain. Read all the three articles below. First one is from Hindustan Times which was published before Shriti was given a charge of minister, another is from Times of India which narrates Indian notions after Shriti’s appointment and the third article is from London’s Telegraph which describes Shriti as no.2 person in treasury.
Hindustatn Times wrote before Shriti was given a charge in Britain’s ministry
A person of Indian origin could become one of Britain’s most powerful women when Gordon Brown becomes prime minister on Wednesday.
Shriti Vadera, 44, a special advisor to Brown, will hold one of the most influential posts in Brown’s ‘kitchen cabinet’ — a group of unofficial advisors who informally make decisions on government policy. At times, they wield more influence over the PM than the Cabinet itself.
Vadera has been a member of Brown’s Council of Economic Advisors since 1999. She was born in Uganda to Gujarati parents. Her family moved in the 1970s, first to India then to England. She studied politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford, before joining investment bank UBS in 1984.
There, she specialised in debt restructuring for poor African countries and engaged in the privatisation process in South Africa. It was her willingness to drive private-sector solutions to achieve socialist objectives that made Brown pick her as his adviser.
Colleagues describe her as typically New Labour: she loves modern art, champagne and lives in one of London’s most desirable streets.
“She’s really respected,” said Labour MP Ian Gibson. “She’s obviously going to be working inside the government. It’s possible that she’s going to be the most powerful woman in Britain in the future. I expect that Gordon will keep her in his Treasury team.”
Times Of India Wrote After Shriti Was Made A Minister
LONDON: Britain’s new Prime Minister Gordon Brown has appointed Shriti Vadera, an Indian-origin economist, as Junior International Development Minister that will involve dealing with issues related to India.
She is the first Asian to be made a minister since Keith Vaz, who was Minister for Europe from 1999-2001. Vadera’s appointment as a Junior Minister is all the more significant since she is from outside the political spectrum.
Vadera, who was a central figure in the Treasury presided over by Brown, was tipped for a key role in 10, Downing Street, due to her proximity with Brown. She has advised him on various international issues, including Africa.
Born in Uganda, her family moved in the 1970s first to India and then to England, where she studied politics, philosophy and economics at Somerville College, Oxford. She has held key financial and economic positions in London’s financial district.
Vadera is seen as a key behind-the-scenes figure who has the full confidence of Brown. She has been the main point of contact between the Treasury and the City, London’s financial district.
The 40-something Vadera has been described in the corridors of Whitehall as “Gordon’s representative on earth” and is known as a forceful official who often takes a higher profile in meetings than ministers due to her expertise and political common sense.
Vadera has overseen many of the more technical aspects of Treasury policy. She managed the sale of government defense-research company Qinetiq, the partial sale of the London Underground and arranged a bond sale to raise money to vaccinate poor children in Africa.
She is on the board of trustees of Oxfam. Former minister Stephen Byers once said of her: “Shriti’s Shriti. She can be forceful and sometimes she can be a real sweetie. She’s a significant player in Whitehall.”
Martin Vander Weyer, a former speech writer of Vadera, wrote in The Spectator: “The serious-minded but likeable thirty-something I knew has transmuted into the assassin of Railtrack, the ass-kicker of Transport for London, the axe-wielder from the Treasury whom departmental ministers fear as acutely as they fear Gordon himself, with whose total authority she speaks.
“The frisson at the mention of her name - and the urge to be nasty about her, neither ‘portly’ nor ‘middle-aged’ being strictly accurate at that time are typical of Vadera’s treatment by the media, a situation which Westminster reporters say has arisen because, unlike pretty well everyone else in that vicinity, she flatly refuses to talk to them.
“The Treasury offers no personal details about her, and she is so rarely photographed that some Westminster hacks still can’t pick her out at parties.
“It was her willingness to drive private-sector solutions to achieve socialist objectives - plus her tenacity and technical competence - that recommended Vadera to Brown. She became his chief negotiator with the City and the business community, some of whom resented her manner.”
Vadera is part of a brains trust that Brown has assiduously built over the past decade.
Many members of this fiercely loyal team were picked before they turned 30. Besides Vadera, other members of the team include Ed Balls, Ed Miliband and Damian MacBride.
London’s Telegraph Says
If Alastair Campbell was Tony Blair’s real deputy, Shriti Vadera has been the real number two at the Treasury.
But rather than remain the power behind the throne, the publicity-shy former investment banker has entered the limelight by becoming an international development minister.
The Tories said her appointment showed that Gordon Brown, like Mr Blair, hands jobs to “cronies”.
But relief agencies and charities were pleased by the arrival of Miss Vadera, the brains behind many of the Government’s flagship policies for Africa and debt relief.
Oxfam, where she was a trustee, lauded her “extremely strong commitment to poverty eradication and international development”.
Miss Vadera, 44, was born on the shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda to an Indian family. She came to the UK in 1974 and read politics, philosophy and economics at Somerville College, Oxford, where Margaret Thatcher and Indira Gandhi studied.
She has a formidable reputation and is said to be capable of reducing junior officials to quivering wrecks.
After 14 years at the investment bank UBS Warburg, she joined the Treasury in 1999 and became as indispensable in advising Mr Brown as the better-known Ed Balls.
Miss Vadera was involved in the renationalisation of Railtrack and the part-privatisation of the London Underground.
She dismissed Railtrack shareholders as “grannies” who had “added no value to the company”, which came to light during the investors’ High Court case against the Government.
By Brendan Carlin and Martin Beckford
