Bim Afolami grew up in Crowthorne, Berkshire, son of a doctor and pharmacist. He attended Eton College, then University College, Oxford, where he studied History, was Vice President of the Oxford Union, and played football for the university. He spent several years working in the City of London as a corporate lawyer, first at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, then at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. Following this, he worked as a senior executive at HSBC, in HSBC Group corporate restructuring and strategy.
Elected as Conservative MP for Hitchin and Harpenden in 2017 aged 31, Bim has served on the Public Accounts Select Committee, and as PPS to the Secretaries of State for International Development and International Trade. He currently serves as PPS to the Work and Pensions Secretary. Bim also sits on the advisory board of the Social Market Foundation, on the Programme Committee of the Ditchley Foundation, and in 2018 was named as a Franco British Young Leader by the Franco – British Council.