BORN in Uganda and resident in the UK since 1971, Lord Dolar Popat, is one of the leading cultural and political figures of our day and a man, quite possibly, at least in part, responsible for helping a certain Rishi Sunak attain the highest office in the land as prime minister.
Lord Popat has devoted more of his time to politics and international trade – one could say these are twin passions he uses to serve Britain and Uganda.
It was prime minister David Cameron who gave Popat his peerage in July 2010 and appointed him trade envoy to Rwanda and Uganda in January 2016. Later, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was added to his brief.
Popat has been considered so effective that he was retained in his role by Cameron’s successors, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, whom he backed for the Tory party leadership and accompanied on visits to hustings.
Dolar Popat was born on June 14, 1953 in Busolwe in eastern Uganda and brought up in nearby Tororo.
On May 24, 1971, a year before Idi Amin gave Indians in Uganda 90 days to leave the country, Popat said goodbye to his parents and made his way to Entebbe Airport to catch a flight to Britain and begin his journey into the unknown: “I got on that plane less than a month before my eighteenth birthday. I brought with me £10 of my own money…..and a suitcase made of cardboard.”
The days of hardships saw Popat studying at a night school while maintaining himself as a dishwasher, waiter, and a grill chef. He later qualified as an affiliate member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in 1977. He started in the care home business and has since expanded into hotels and nursery provision. His three sons – Rupeen, Pavaan, and Shivaan are all involved into business now.
He had long been interested in politics and partly influenced by the trauma of the Asian community in Uganda – when it had little to no political representation to counter Amin’s terrible plan – Lord Popat and others appreciated that playing a role in politics was important, vital even, for long term stability within minority communities.
Later, he and other influential and wealthy supporters created the Conservative Friends of India group. Mainly a social and networking outfit, the CFI helped support and facilitate the progress of Indian-origin MPs, introduced them, and helped them get to know senior figures in the party. He recalled that Cameron had said that “Ugandan Asians are the best immigrants this country has ever had”.
Popat was prophetic when he said that post-pandemic economic recovery would be determined by inflation. He is also of the opinion that after Brexit, the UK needs to cultivate foreign markets. He has significantly contributed to the envoy's capacity, particularly by promoting strong diplomatic and economic ties between the UK and Africa.
“The trade envoy programme is a welcome initiative that can open doors to building contacts. Trade envoys are de facto ‘ministers’ for the country they cover and can visit more frequently than actual ministers, allowing our ambassadors to set up important meetings and to work with British businesses and organise trade delegations. However, the trade programme needs to be more entrepreneurial and dynamic if it is to reach its potential. We need to expand the trade envoy programme to cover more African countries,” he said.
He also has a deep interest in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). He helped set up a House of Lords cross-party Select Committee on SME Exports to assess what the British government is doing to assist and promote them to export more.
“We need to market UK companies, especially SMEs, to showcase the potential Africa has. We need to be advertising regularly, holding trade shows and writing articles on the opportunities available,” he said.
Popat’s focus on Africa might also be influenced by the fact that he was born in that continent but it doesn’t downplay the fact that he has a real interest in seeing the UK grow globally post Brexit. He has also put equal efforts to nurture relations with key leaders of the Indian community in Britain. Examples are setting up the CFI and acting as a strategic advisor to the Hindu Forum. The much-discussed bilateral trade mechanism between the UK and India is also something that keeps Popat interested as he feels that both sides stand to benefit from it.
Popat has set out the many hurdles he has had to overcome in his engagingly honest memoirs, A British Subject: How to make it as an immigrant in the best country in the world, which was published in 2019. It carried an introduction by Cameron.
One person who Popat idolises and believes to have influenced his life more than anybody else is Morari Bapu, a spiritual leader and his mentor. In December 2020, he told Reena Ranger, chair of Women Empowered that Bapu’s liberal and modern approach struck him and that he had encouraged him to engage British Indians in the UK’s political life, beginning with a basic sense of civic duty to the community and the country.
The peer deeply empathizes with refugees since he has been through the challenges, so he backs the Conservative government’s migrant and economic development partnership with Rwanda. He believes the plan allows the UK to welcome genuinely vulnerable people while tackling illegal immigrants. While the Tories remain divided over the plan, one could say that Popat’s stance on the matter has more to do with his economic diplomacy to strengthen the UK’s ties with Rwanda as he envies that country.
In Uganda, which he last visited in November 2022, he appears to have established a close working relationship with the president. Popat has become a familiar figure on Ugandan television.
In one of his TV interviews, Popat spoke of his affection for Uganda as “the land of my birth.” These words, though very few, have the heart of the countless struggles of immigrants in a nutshell.
