David Lammy

Tottenham MP David Lammy has been leading the parliamentary charge for the Windrush generation as they fight for their residency rights. Mark Coles charts the life and career of one of parliament's most formidable campaigners.

Born in North London to Guyanese parents, Lammy grew up in Tottenham but moved to Peterborough aged 11 after winning a council scholarship to the city's cathedral boarding school. He went on to study law in London and at Harvard. Then, after a brief spell as a barrister, he became MP for his home borough of Tottenham at the age of just 27. His political career soon took off, with Tony Blair making him a minister in the New Labour government and Lammy was quickly hailed as 'the Black Blair' or 'Britain's Obama'. But not everything went smoothly for the junior minister.

Since Labour went into opposition, Lammy has spent his time on the back benches. There, he's found his political voice and passion as a defender of those he feels have been failed by the system - from the Grenfell fire victims, to working-class young people struggling to get into top universities, and now the Windrush immigrants. Alastair Campbell calls him "a good old-fashioned class warrior, in the best possible sense".

Mark Coles meets some of the people who know Lammy best - from childhood friends, former teachers and his beloved 'Aunty May' who firmly believes that, one day, her godson will be Britain's first black Prime Minister.

Presenter: Mark Coles.
Producers: Diane Richardson and Arlene Gregorius
Editor: Helen Grady.