Swraj Paul, Baron Paul

According to his official biography, Swraj Paul was born in Jullundur, Punjab Province, in 1931, in what was then British India. His father Payare Lal ran a small foundry, making steel buckets and farming equipment. His mother's name was Mongwati. The site of his childhood home is now Apeejay School.

Swraj Paul completed his high school education at Labbu Ram Doaba School. Paul was educated at Forman Christian College in Lahore, and Doaba College in Jalandhar. He went to the United States to study mechanical engineering, obtaining BSc, MSc and MechE degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Education

The Foundation has established the Ambika Paul School of Technology in Jalandhar, India.

Lord Paul held the Pro-Chancellorship of Thames Valley University from 1997 to 2000, and the Chancellorship from 2000 to 2001.

He was the Chancellor of the University of Wolverhampton from 1998 until his death in 2025. In 2010 the student union centre was renamed "The Ambika Paul Student Union Centre", following his donation towards its refurbishment. In 2015 he gave, through his family foundation, £1 million, the largest single donation in the university's history.

Lord Paul was Chancellor of University of Westminster, from 2006 to 2014; his foundation donated £300,000 to establish the Ambika P3 event and exhibition space.

He sat on MIT's Mechanical Engineering Visiting Committee between 1998 and 2001, when he established the Ambika Paul Mezzanine and Study Space, and the Swraj Paul Scholarship fund for undergraduate and graduate students.

Lord Paul was a member of the President's Cabinet for Chapman University in Orange, California.

After leaving MIT, he returned to India to work for the family business, Apeejay Group, which was founded by his father, and was, at the time, managed by his two older brothers, Satya Paul and Jit Paul.

Caparo Group

In 1966 he relocated to the United Kingdom to obtain medical treatment for his young daughter, who had leukaemia. He spent a year grieving her death, after which he founded Natural Gas Tubes. Starting with one steel unit, he went on to acquire more. This led to his founding the Caparo Group in 1968, which became one of the UK's largest steel conversion and distribution businesses, manufacturing an extensive range of structural steels, precision tube, spirally welded tube, special bar qualities, industrial wires, cold rolled strip and spring steel strip. Lord Paul stepped down from the management of the Caparo Group in 1996.

Up until Autumn 2015, Caparo employed over 10,000 people across North America, Europe, India and, the Middle East. In October 2015, 16 of the 20 limited companies that formed most of Caparo Group UK collapsed into administration, and on 8 November his son Angad Paul, the Group's CEO, died in an apparently suicidal fall from his eighth-floor penthouse flat.

Lord Paul was on the Sunday Times Rich List as the 38th richest person in Britain, although he claimed to take public transport in London "like everybody else". From the 1960s he lived in Portland Place, in central London. He and his family owned a dozen flats in the block, each worth close to £1,000,000.

His son Angad Paul, CEO of Caparo plc, died after falling from his Marylebone penthouse flat on 8 November 2015. A police statement stated they considered there to be no suspicious circumstances.

Lord Paul died in London on 21 August 2025, at the age of 94.

Lord Paul held many public positions. In 2006, as part of his parliamentary work, he made a declaration of interest; he was involved with more than a dozen organisations outside his family business and foundation. This foundation, named in memory of his daughter, channels profits from Caparo India into charitable endeavours. For example, Paul was an honorary patron of the Zoological Society of London and funded major projects at the Regent's Park site, including the Ambika Paul children's zoo.

In 2020, $5 million was donated to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for "The Swraj Paul Theatre" at the Kresge Auditorium.

International relations

Lord Paul took an interest in international relations. He was appointed by the government to act as an ambassador for British business from 1998–2010. He was a member of the Foreign Policy Centre Advisory Council. He contested for the chairmanship of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, with an agenda to reduce the gap between the West and the East. Lord Paul was Co-Chairman of the Indo-British Roundtable from 2000 to 2005. He was a member of Panel 2000, an appointment by the Prime Minister to re-brand Britain.

British politics

Lord Paul donated £500,000 to the Labour Party, being the largest donor to Gordon Brown's leadership campaign and offering in 2007 to give "as much as [he] can afford" in the case of an early election. He was also close to the former UK Prime Minister's wife, Sarah Brown, for whom he showed paternal concern. Lord Paul was chairman and trustee of Theirworld and chairman Theirworld Projects Ltd (formerly PiggyBankKids) from 2002 to 2015; the charity was founded by Sarah Brown.

He was the first person of Indian origin to hold the post of deputy speaker of the House of Lords, one of twelve people in that post. He was sworn of the Privy Council on 15 October 2009.

Lord Paul was involved with the London Olympics from its inception; he was a member of the board responsible for the 2005 submission of the bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics. He travelled to Singapore as part of the bidding team that successfully persuaded the International Olympic Committee to award the games to London for 2012. He chaired the Olympic Delivery Committee, part of the London Development Agency, with the job of obtaining the land on which to build the new venues, and delivering the land on time and on budget. (See Legacy of the 2012 Summer Olympics.)

In October 2009, The Sunday Times reported that Lord Paul had been unable to satisfactorily explain claiming expenses of £38,000 for the period January 2005 to July 2006. Lord Paul immediately requested the Clerk of the Parliaments to investigate his expenses at the same time repaying £41,982, instead of £26,988, £15,000, more than the House of Lords would have requested at the conclusion of their investigation. A refund of the difference was never issued by the House of Lords. The Metropolitan Police opened an investigation concerning these expense claims, but by the end of February 2010 concluded there was no case. Lord Paul appeared before various committees for Lord's Conduct with ultimately the Privileges Committee concluding that Lord Paul had not acted dishonestly or in bad faith. They did determine however that he had been negligent and acted in ignorance and that his actions did render him liable to sanction by the House." Lord Paul's suspension was for four months. Lord Paul completely disagreed with their finding, calling it "unreasonable." Lord Paul gave a Speech in the House of Lords in June 2011 calling for reform and revision of the structure of the constitution.

Paul tendered his resignation as Deputy Speaker to the Lord Speaker on 1 November 2010. His letter, printed in The House Magazine a week later, expressed his reservations about the process, calling it "a sad saga for parliamentary democracy – an unfortunate series of events having evidently been inspired by the electoral politics of the media". He spoke on this topic many times after the expenses scandal initially made news, and maintained that no wrongdoing had occurred in his case.

During the period between the 2019 and 2024 general elections, he claimed £100,946 in allowances; this was despite the fact that he "did not speak, write or hold a committee or government post, and voted only once".