Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
Adam Patel in 2000. He was regarded as having played a pivotal role in stabilising and integrating the Muslim community in Blackburn with the white population.
Adam Patel in 2000. He was regarded as having played a pivotal role in stabilising and integrating the Muslim community in Blackburn with the white population. Photograph: Photoshot
Adam Patel in 2000. He was regarded as having played a pivotal role in stabilising and integrating the Muslim community in Blackburn with the white population. Photograph: Photoshot

Lord Patel of Blackburn obituary

This article is more than 4 years old

Businessman, Labour politician and pioneer in the field of community relations

Like so many other young men of his generation, Adam Patel left India in 1965 seeking business qualifications in the UK and headed for Blackburn, Lancashire, because of its long established connections with textile manufacturing in his home state of Gujarat.

He was encouraged by a temporary boom in the Lancashire textile industry, which meant that he could finance his studies at Blackburn College by working in a cotton mill, with the intention of returning home to practise accountancy. Instead he remained to become a leading businessman, a pioneer in the development of successful community relations and a hugely respected character in the political and commercial life of what became his adopted home town.

Lord Patel, or “Lord Adam” as he was widely known after his appointment to the House of Lords in 2000, became such an admired figure in Blackburn that his family became accustomed to a succession of callers seeking help and advice at the front door, sometimes well after midnight.

Patel, who has died aged 78, drew his strength from the combination of his status as a profoundly devout Muslim with his belief in civic responsibility. A highly intelligent man who exuded a sense of wisdom, he had the instincts of a natural leader.

He was regarded as having played a pivotal role in stabilising and integrating the Muslim community in Blackburn with the white population. In May 2001, during an outbreak of violent riots in a number of northern towns and cities, including Oldham, Burnley, Leeds and Bradford, the lack of any problems in Blackburn was ascribed to Patel’s personal authority within the community and his skill in dissuading hotheads from causing trouble.

A founder member of the Blackburn Community Relations Council, which became the Racial Equality Council, he had founded the Blackburn Indian Workers’ Association within two years of arriving in the town, in 1967. He had joined the Labour party the previous year, and worked actively with local politicians, including Barbara Castle, then MP for Blackburn, and her successor in 1979, Jack Straw, who became a close friend.

Born in the village of Karmad, near Bharuch, only 50 miles from where the first depot of the East India Company was founded in Surat, Adam was from a prosperous family, the son of Hafejee Ismail Patel and Aman (nee Zumla) Hafejee. He went to the Pioneer high school in Bharuch before studying commerce at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda.

After arriving in the UK, completing his studies and working initially as an accountant, he set up his own clothing manufacturing business, on the street where Jack Walker, who became the owner of Blackburn Rovers, had grown up, as Patel was fond of pointing out.

A huge enthusiast for Rovers, he became honorary patron of the supporters’ BRFC Action Group. He was also director of the East Lancashire Training and Enterprise Council and, from 1984 to 1995, was a magistrate in the town. He jointly chaired the local Christian/Muslim interfaith forum.

It was as a result of pressure in the late 1980s from Patel that Straw, the then shadow education secretary, was persuaded of the need for state funding for schools of the newer communities in the UK of Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims. That policy was adopted by Labour and implemented when Tony Blair’s government took office in 1997. Patel was also influential in securing the provision of halal meat in schools and ensuring that Muslim burial requirements could be met.

When he arrived at Westminster he became a member of the now home secretary’s race relations advisory forum and, in his early years as a parliamentarian, spoke often on the subjects of business development and the need for religious tolerance and understanding. In his maiden speech he reminded members of the Lords that his native state of Gujarat had a proud reputation of exporting its expertise in enterprise and skills, dating back to the 12th century.

From 1990 he was founding president of the Lancashire Council of Mosques. He also became a member of the Muslim Council of Britain and chaired the Council of British Hajjis, the organisation that looks after the interests of British pilgrims to Mecca.

He married Ayesha Bholabhai in 1964. They had four sons, Ilyas, Imran, Imtyaz and Iqbal, and four daughters, Shirin, Shamim, Sophia and Saleha.

Adam Hafejee Patel, Lord Patel of Blackburn, businessman and politician, born 7 June 1940; died 29 May 2019

Comments (…)

Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion

Most viewed

Most viewed