Salma Shah
Ommasalma Shah is a British political commentator and consultant known professionally as Salma Shah. She worked as special adviser to former Tory Home Secretary Sajid Javid for five years covering four different departments.
She has been a director of Kraken Strategy Limited since 2019, and is a Policy Fellow alumnus of Centre for Science and Policy. She is also a Trustee of the think tank Policy Exchange.
Early life
Shah was born in July 1984 in the United Kingdom to immigrant parents from Pakistan and India.Career
Salma worked for Sir Alan Duncan who was then a member of the Conservative Party Shadow Cabinet as an adviser and then a press officer for the Conservative Party. From 2014, she was a producer at the BBC helping to produce Today programme on Radio 4. Shah worked as a special adviser in the Conservative government, specialising in public policy.She worked for Sajid Javid across four Government departments. She started working for him at the Department of Culture Media and Sport The Department for Business Innovation and Skills and The Ministry for Housing and Local Government
She held an important role as an adviser to Sajid Javid when he was in office as Home Secretary.
She departed from government in 2019, when Boris Johnson became Prime Minister.
She then worked in the private sector for Portland Communications. In 2022, she joined Mitie as a non-executive director and as a prominent political commentator in the media, she has also been a commentator on police reform and English devolution. Shah has been awarded for her role as a company board director winning the Sunday Times Non-Executive Director to Watch award in 2024 She is a fellow of the Centre for Science and Policy.
In her post-Government career, Salma was a columnist for the Independent The Independent.
Shah is a regular panellist on shows including Sophy Ridge on Sunday Good Morning Britain, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg and BBC [Politics Live]. She appeared on Have [I Got News for You|Have I Got News for You] on 10 October 2025.