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Alok Sharma (born 7 September 1967) is a British politician, serving as the Secretary of State for International Development since July 2019. He was elected in 2010 as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Reading West.

Sharma previously served as Housing Minister between 2017 and 2018, and as Employment Minister from 2018 to 2019

Early life and career
Sharma was born in Agra, India, but moved to Reading with his parents when he was five years old. He was raised in the Reading suburbs of Earley and Whitley Wood and attended Reading Blue Coat School in Sonning[4] and the University of Salford, from where he graduated with a BSc in Applied Physics with Electronics in 1988.

Sharma subsequently qualified as a chartered accountant, training with Deloitte Haskins & Sells in Manchester before moving into corporate finance advisory with Nikko Securities and then Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken, where he held senior roles based out of London, Stockholm and Frankfurt. Sharma was an adviser to clients in the corporate and private equity sector on cross border mergers and acquisitions, listings and restructurings.

Sharma is a governor of a local primary school in Reading. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Previously he served as a chairman of the political think tank Bow Group's economic affairs committee.

Political career
Member of Parliament
Sharma was elected as the MP for Reading West in 2010, winning a majority of 6,004 after the retirement of Martin Salter.

At the 2017 general election, he won his seat with a reduced margin, a majority of 2,876. On being re-elected, Sharma wrote on his website: "Having grown up locally in Reading and being very much a local Reading man, I am delighted to have been re-elected for a constituency in my home town."