Baroness Flather was the first Asian to enter the House of Lords, the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and is widely recognised as a champion against racism and for human rights, in particular those of women in developing nations.

Originally from Lahore, India, she was educated at University College London and began her career as a teacher of English as a second language to Asian boys. The school brought her first experience of racism, with its headmaster relegating her pupils to the worst classroom and excluding her from normal staff relations.

During this time she became active in community and voluntary work and, through various roles, pioneered the representation of Asians in British society and government through several high profile roles. These include being the UK’s first ethnic minority woman councillor and its first female Asian mayor. She was active in the Conservative party throughout this period and has served on numerous public bodies concerned with racism, including the Race Relations Board, Commission for Racial Equality, and the Swann Committee.

She describes her most enduring achievement as the construction of the Memorial Gates on Constitution Hill in London. This is a memorial to the nearly 5 million volunteers from the Indian Subcontinent, Africa and the Caribbean who fought in the two World Wars. In recent years she has devoted her energies to bringing the plight of the poorest women in developing countries to the attention of the House and through other avenues. In 2010 she published Woman: Acceptable Exploitation for Profit, a thought-provoking book which argues for the economic inclusion of women for global benefit.

Baroness Flather lives in Maidenhead, is married and has two sons and four grandchildren.