Before becoming a member of parliament, Kwarteng worked as an analyst in financial services. He has written a book, Ghosts of Empire, about the legacy of the British Empire, published by Bloomsbury in 2011. He also co-authored Gridlock Nation with Jonathan Dupont in 2011 about the causes and solutions to traffic congestion in Britain.
Political career
Considered "a rising star on the right of the party", Kwarteng was the Conservative candidate in the constituency of Brent East at the 2005 general election. He finished in third place behind the incumbent Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather and Yasmin Qureshi of the Labour Party. Kwarteng was chairman of the Bow Group in 2005–06. In 2006, The Times suggested that he could become the first black Conservativecabinet minister. He was sixth on the Conservative list of candidates for the London Assembly in the 2008 London Assembly election, but was not elected as the Conservatives claimed only three London-wide list seats. Kwarteng was selected as the Conservative candidate for Spelthorne at an open primary in January 2010 after the incumbent Conservative MP, David Wilshire, became mired in controversy arising from the Parliamentary expenses scandal and announced that he would be retiring from Parliament at the next general election. Kwarteng was described by a local paper as a "black Boris". At the 2010 general election, Kwarteng won the seat with 22,261 votes. In August 2012, Kwarteng co-authored a book with four fellow MPs Britannia Unchained. In it, the authors made controversial remarks and suggestions, as highlighted in one outlet of the national press on publication, including that "Once they enter the workplace, the British are among the worst idlers in the world". The book also argues for a radical shrinking of the welfare state in order "to return it to the contributory principle envisioned by its founder Sir William Beveridge – that you get benefits in return for contributions", according to BBC News. In 2014, War and Gold: A Five-Hundred-Year History of Empires, Adventures and Debt appeared. It is a history of capital and the enduring ability of money, when combined with speculation, to ruin societies. The book has been translated into Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. In 2015, Thatcher's Trial: Six Months That Defined a Leader was published. Kwarteng was re-elected on 7 May 2015 with an increased majority. In April 2016, the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Foreign Affairs paid for Kwarteng and ten other Conservative MPs to visit Saudi Arabia on a "parliamentary fact-finding" mission. The Saudi Arabian government paid between £1,500 and £3,700 for each MP. Kwarteng backed the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union in the 2016 referendum. Following the 2017 general election, Kwarteng was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Chancellor of the ExchequerPhilip Hammond. On 16 November 2018, Kwarteng replaced Suella Braverman as a Minister in the Department for Exiting the EU. On 25 July 2019 Kwarteng was appointed Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy along with Jo Johnson, brother of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. He was appointed to the Privy Council on the same day. In September 2019, Kwarteng was criticised for saying "many people believe judges are biased" after a Scottish court ruled that Boris Johnson's prorogation of parliament was illegal. In 2008, he received financial assistance from the secret group Le Cercle to attend a conference in Washington, DC and in 2019 he was funded by the same group to attend a meeting in Bahrain.
