Salma Shah

Ommasalma Shah (born July 1984) is a British political commentator and consultant known professionally as Salma Shah. She worked as special adviser to former Conservative 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. and then a press officer for the Conservative Party. From 2014, she was a producer at the BBC helping to produce the 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 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. Good Morning Britain, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg and BBC Politics Live. She appeared on Have I Got News for You on 10 October 2025.

Personal life Her husband Andrew Smith served as lord mayor of Westminster from 2021 to 2022