Ruth Kelly
The Right Honourable Ruth Maria Kelly (born 9 May, 1968) is a British politician. She is Labour Member of Parliament for Bolton West and Secretary of State for Education and Skills, and has worked with the Institute for Public Policy Research on several projects.
Kelly was born in Limavady, Northern Ireland. She attended the fee-paying Sutton High School, followed by Westminster School for A-levels. She went on to Queen's College, University of Oxford (where she studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics) and then the London School of Economics. She was an economics writer for The Guardian from 1990, before becoming deputy head of the Inflation Report Division of the Bank of England in 1994. She is married with four children.
In the general election of 1997, Kelly gained the seat of Bolton West from the Conservatives while heavily pregnant, and gave birth to her first son eleven days later. She had already been marked out as a rising star and served on the Treasury Select Committee; she was also appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Agriculture Minister, Nick Brown from 1998. Kelly was a member of a commission set up by the Institute for Public Policy Research into the Private Finance Initiative, which expressed some scepticism about the operation of the policy.
After the 2001 general election Kelly was appointed as Economic Secretary to the Treasury. She had responsibility for competition policy and small businesses. After a year she was promoted to be Financial Secretary to the Treasury where she had responsibility for regulation of the financial services industry. Both posts were heavily affected by the thorough revision of the Financial Services regulation system which was introduced by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, and Kelly also brought in new regulations to tackle the funding of terrorism after September 11, 2001.
Kelly had primary responsibility for dealing with Equitable Life after the Penrose Report into the society was published. She rejected calls for government compensation to Equitable policyholders, on the grounds that the losses arose from actions of the Society rather than from any defect of regulation, and that the Society was still trading. Equitable policyholders continued to demand redress. In a small reshuffle, she was promoted to be Minister for the Cabinet Office on September 9, 2004, replacing Douglas Alexander. The Cabinet Office had many and varied responsibilities. Kelly guided the Civil Contingencies Bill through its final stages in Parliament, which faced serious objections from some civil liberties campaigns. She also worked to promote new technologies in government, and to make sure they were available to every citizen.
In the reshuffle following the resignation of David Blunkett on December 15, 2004, Kelly entered the Cabinet (also becoming a member of the Privy Council) with the position of Secretary of State for Education and Skills. She became the youngest woman ever to sit in the Cabinet.
Kelly is a practicing Catholic. She is alleged to be a member of Opus Dei and has attended meetings - her brother Ronan is a supernumerary in the organisation. Members of the scientific community have expressed concern that her religious views could influence government policy on stem cell research.
External links
- Ruth Kelly MP official site
- HM Treasury - Ruth Kelly Financial Secretary
- Guardian Unlimited Politics Ask Aristotle - Ruth Kelly
- They Work For You - Ruth Kelly MP
- Scientists are alarmed by Ruth Kelly's strict beliefs - Times article describing Ms. Kelly's links with Opus Dei.