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Kanishka Narayan

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The Right Honourable
Kanishka Narayan
MP
Official portrait, 2026
Minister for Artificial Intelligence
Incumbent
Assumed office
20 July 2026
Prime MinisterAndy Burnham
Preceded byOffice established
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for AI and Online Safety
In office
7 September 2025 – 20 July 2026
Prime MinisterKeir Starmer
Preceded byFeryal Clark
Succeeded byHimself as Minister of State
Member of Parliament
for Vale of Glamorgan
Incumbent
Assumed office
4 July 2024
Preceded byAlun Cairns
Majority4,216 (9.2%)
Personal details
BornNovember 1989 (age 36)
Muzaffarpur, Bihar, India
PartyLabour
EducationBalliol College, Oxford (BA)
Stanford University (MBA)
Websitekanishkanarayan.com

Kanishka Narayan (born November 1989) is a British politician who has served as Minister for Artificial Intelligence since July 2026. He previously served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for AI and Online Safety from 2025 to 2026. A member of the Labour Party, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Vale of Glamorgan since 2024.

Early life and education

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Narayan was born in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, India, in November 1989.[1] His family moved to Cardiff when he was 12 years old,[2] and he grew up in the city,[3] sleeping on the floor of his family's one-bedroom home off City Road.[4] He spent one year at Cathays High School before attending Eton College in Berkshire after winning a full scholarship.[5][6] He studied PPE at Balliol College, Oxford, before gaining a Master of Business Administration degree from Stanford University.[2] He is the only Labour MP elected since 2005 to have attended Eton and the first Labour Cabinet minister to be an Old Etonian since 1968.[7]

He has said that he joined the Labour Party when he was 18.[3]

Early career

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Narayan was a civil servant in the Cabinet Office under David Cameron and later worked at the Environment Department under Liz Truss.[2] He also worked as an investment banker at Lazard, advising corporate and technology clients on mergers and acquisitions and capital markets.[8]

He has also volunteered with Citizens Advice and The Trussell Trust.[9]

Parliamentary career

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In 2023, Narayan moved from Cardiff to the Waterfront in Barry, in the Vale of Glamorgan, a couple of weeks after being selected as the Labour candidate for the Vale of Glamorgan constituency.[2]

He won the Vale of Glamorgan seat in the July 2024 general election, becoming Wales' first ethnic-minority MP.[10] The BBC described his election as "one of the most significant developments since Lady Megan Lloyd George became the first woman MP from Wales, back in 1929".[11][12]

After the election, he was appointed parliamentary private secretary to Steve Reed, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.[4] On 7 September 2025, he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for AI and Online Safety, a junior ministerial role in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.[13][14]

On 20 July 2026, Prime Minister Andy Burnham promoted him to become the first UK Minister for Artificial Intelligence, a Cabinet-attending role jointly based in the newly formed Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade and the Cabinet Office.[15]

Honours

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On 21 July 2026, he was sworn in as a member of the Privy Council, entitling him to use the honorific style "The Right Honourable" for life.[16]

References

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  1. ↑ "Kanishka Narayan personal appointments". gov.uk. Retrieved 9 April 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Prince, Rosa (August 2023). "London Playbook – Postcard from Vale of Glamorgan". Politico. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
  3. 1 2 Jamshidian, Harry (20 June 2024). "Labour's Kanishka Narayan ready for General Election fight". Barry and District News. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
  4. 1 2 Mosalski, Ruth (15 December 2024). "The extraordinary story of the talented boy, 12, who used to sleep on a small Cardiff flat floor". Wales Online. Retrieved 10 April 2025.
  5. ↑ Courea, Eleni (5 June 2024). "Rising stars who could play a big part in a Labour government". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
  6. ↑ Ruth Mosalski (15 December 2024). "The extraordinary story of the talented boy, 12, who used to sleep on a small Cardiff flat floor". Wales Online. Retrieved 1 September 2026.
  7. ↑ Mosbacher, Michael (2026) "Burnham is levelling up Britain by elevating an Old Etonian", The Daily Telegraph (accessed: 24 August 2026)
  8. ↑ Coulter, Martin (30 August 2025). "Ex-VC and Labour MP Kanishka Narayan: 'Technology could make government radically better'". Sifted. Retrieved 23 July 2026.
  9. ↑ Mosalski, Ruth; Summer, Ben (3 July 2024). "General election 2024: Find out more about the candidates standing in the Vale of Glamorgan". Wales Online. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  10. ↑ "Vale of Glamorgan | General Election 2024 | Sky News". election.news.sky.com. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
  11. ↑ Lewis, Rowenna; Fairclough, Stephen; Lewis, Rhodri (5 July 2024). "Wales' first ethnic minority MP hopes to inspire". BBC News. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
  12. ↑ "UK Election: Record Number of Indian-Origin MPs". NDTV.
  13. ↑ "Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for AI and Online Safety) - GOV.UK". [www.gov.uk](http://www.gov.uk). Retrieved 17 November 2025.
  14. ↑ "Ministerial appointments: September 2025". GOV.UK. 11 September 2025. Retrieved 13 September 2025.
  15. ↑ "Ministerial Appointments: July 2026". GOV.UK. 22 July 2026. Retrieved 23 July 2026.
  16. ↑ "Kanishka Narayan sworn as Privy Counsellor" (PDF). privycouncil.independent.gov.uk. Retrieved 22 July 2026.
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