Seema Kennedy

In April 2019, Kennedy was appointed to the position of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health and Primary Care. In July 2019, she moved to the Home Office and succeeded Caroline Nokes as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Immigration. Kennedy was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in May's resignation honours in September. She announced on 25 October that she would be standing down as MP at the next general election.

The Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness was launched in January 2017. Kennedy and Labour MP Rachel Reeves were the co-chairwomen of the commission. Kennedy had initially began work on the commission with Labour MP Jo Cox in 2016. After Cox's murder, Reeves joined the project to continue her work. In January 2018, the first minister for loneliness was appointed.

Following the 2017 general election, Kennedy was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Prime Minister Theresa May. She was the first female PPS to a Conservative prime minister.. She served alongside George Hollingbery.

She supported the United Kingdom (UK) remaining within the European Union (EU) in the 2016 UK EU membership referendum. Kennedy voted for then Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit withdrawal agreement in early 2019. In the indicative votes on 27 March, she voted against a referendum on any withdrawal agreement, and against a no-deal Brexit.

Following Theresa May's reshuffle upon becoming Prime Minister in July 2016, Kennedy was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Nick Gibb, the Minister of State for Schools.

Ghiassi was privately educated at the Westholme School, and studied French and Persian at Pembroke College, Cambridge. She qualified as a commercial property solicitor, and worked for Slaughter and May, and Bevan Brittan, before working for her family's commercial property business Tustin Developments Ltd. She was first elected as MP for South Ribble in the 2015 general election, and was the first MP of Iranian heritage.

She was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for South Ribble in the 2015 general election. She is the first MP of Iranian heritage. She was re-elected in the 2017 general election.

Kennedy stood as the Conservative Party's candidate in Ashton-under-Lyne at the 2010 general election. She came second in the election to the incumbent Labour MP David Heyes. The constituency is historically a safe Labour seat, having elected an MP from the party since 1935. Kennedy unsuccessfully contested the 2013 Hampstead and Kilburn Conservative primary, and was on the longlist for selection in the Mid Worcestershire constituency. In 2014, Kennedy was elected as councillor for the Marshalwick South ward of St Albans City and District Council. She had previously been the chairwoman of the party in St. Albans but resigned in 2009 after a failed attempt to deselect local MP Anne Main over her parliamentary expenses.

She has been married to Paul Kennedy since 2003. They have three sons. They met while working at law firm Slaughter and May. She is a trustee of the charity St. Giles Trust for Children.

Seema Louise Ghiassi Kennedy OBE (née Ghiassi, Persian: سیما غیاثی ‎; born 6 October 1974) is a British Conservative Party politician. She served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Home Office in 2019. She was the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Ribble in Lancashire from 2015 to 2019, and also served as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister from 2017 to 2019.

Seema Louise Ghiassi was born on 6 October 1974 in Blackburn, Lancashire, England. Her father is an Iranian Muslim, and her mother is an Irish Catholic. Six weeks after her birth, the family moved to Iran. They fled the country after the Iranian Revolution in 1979 when she reports that her family home, and spinning mill business were seized by Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini. They resettled in Blackburn, where Ghiassi attended the independent Westholme School. She was head girl at the school.