Ruth Kelly

Date of birth

9 May 1968

Political profile

From her first election to the Commons in 1997, Ruth Kelly was tipped for promotion and has now reached the Cabinet table.

She combined extremely strong intellectual credentials, as a former Bank of England economist, with a perfect political compatibility with New Labour.

She is a modernising, pro-electoral reform Fabian.

She also proved to be an articulate and media friendly defender of government economic policy.

She was soon appointed parliamentary private secretary to Nick Brown, but further promotion was partly stalled by family commitments - she gave birth to three children in the course of the four year Parliament.

After the 2001 election, she was appointed economic secretary to the Treasury and a year later was promoted to financial secretary.

In Tony Blair's September 2004 reshuffle she was moved to be a minister in the Cabinet Office.

And with David Blunkett's departure she was promoted to become education secretary.

Although always loyal to the government, she was one of the authors of an article in Renewal, written before the election, calling for the government to shed controlling tendencies in order to reconnect with the electorate.

She was also a member of an IPPR commission which produced a critical study of the public/private partnerships.

Contact

kellyr@parliament.uk

01204 523920