Paul Yaw Boateng, Baron Boateng, CVO, PC, DL (born 14 June 1951) is a British Labour Party politician, a former civil rights lawyer and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent South from 1987 to 2005, becoming the UK's first Black Cabinet Minister in May 2002, when he was appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

Boateng's life in Ghana came to an abrupt end after his father went to jail in 1966 following a military coup, which toppled the Ghanaian government.

He unsuccessfully stood as a parliamentary candidate for Hertfordshire West (which included his former home town of Hemel Hempstead) at the 1983 general election.

Kinnock rewarded Boateng by making him a junior Treasury spokesman in 1989, and then the first Black person to join the front bench as a party spokesperson.

[5] In 1992, he became shadow minister for the Lord Chancellor's Department, a post he held until the 1997 general election, where he was a strong advocate for increasing pro bono legal services among UK law firms.

[8] He also worked with Eric Holder, then United States Deputy Attorney-General, and Louis Freeh, then Director of the FBI, on issues related to international drug trafficking and interdiction.

[14] To commemorate this historic achievement, Parliament commissioned a painting of Boateng by Jonathan Yeo, which is displayed in the collection of 21st Century Parliamentarians.

Coordinating with Sir Peter Gershon's report, Boateng announced in 2004 the government's efficiency programme to save more than £20,000,000,000 in the public sector.

Boateng is credited with building a close relationship with the African National Congress government in South Africa, and it was reported that he privately worked to bring together bitter rivals in the crisis in Zimbabwe,[25] although he publicly condemned the Zimbabwean government's illegal occupation of land from white farmers[26] and the resulting turmoil, which Boateng labelled a "human rights crisis.

Boateng's maiden speech to the House of Lords highlighted the needs of poor and disadvantaged children, both in rural and urban areas.

[32] In December 2011, he initiated a debate in the House of Lords to discuss cuts in funding to the Citizens Advice Bureau centres, which he vehemently opposed.

[37] In 2011, he was a non-executive Director of Aegis Defence Services, a private security, military and risk management company founded by controversial arms dealer Lt Colonel Tim Spicer, who was at the heart of the Sandline affair[38][39] but had left by 2013.

[40] Boateng was serving on the executive board of the international Christian charity Food for the Hungry, in 2012[41] and is a trustee of the Planet Earth Institute along with chairman Álvaro Sobrinho.

[44] In 1988, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference honoured Boateng as the recipient of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Award for his contributions to the field of civil rights.

[48] Boateng was appointed Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services as a trustee of the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award.