Seema Kennedy

Biography

Seema Kennedy was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Home Office from 26 July 2019 to 16 December 2019.

She was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Public Health and Primary Care from April 2019 to July 2019, with a brief including:

  • health protection and improvement
  • primary care
  • major diseases

Seema was elected Conservative MP for South Ribble on 7 May 2015.

Education

Seema was educated in Blackburn before studying oriental studies (French and Persian) at Pembroke College, Cambridge. After Cambridge, she took a legal practice course.

Political career

Seema was elected as MP for South Ribble in 2015. In 2015, Seema became co-chair of a cross-party Loneliness Commission along with Jo Cox. Following Jo’s murder in 2016, Seema took forward this work with Rachel Reeves to form the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness. In 2017, she became the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Prime Minister. She was the first female PPS to a Conservative prime minister.

Career outside of politics

After graduating from the University of Cambridge, Seema spent some time working in London as a solicitor before joining the family business, which owns commercial properties in north-west England.

Personal life

Seema is married with 3 children.