Ruth Kelly

The Right Honourable Ruth Kelly MP
Secretary of State for Transport
In office 27 June 2007 – 3 October 2008
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Douglas Alexander
Succeeded by	Geoff Hoon
Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Minister for Women and Equality
In office 5 May 2006 – 27 June 2007
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	John Prescott (part of Office of Deputy Prime Minister)
Succeeded by	Hazel Blears (Communities) and Harriet Harman (Women and Equality)
Secretary of State for Education and Skills
In office 15 December 2004 – 5 May 2006
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Charles Clarke
Succeeded by	Alan Johnson
Financial Secretary to the Treasury
In office 15 May 2002 – 9 September 2004
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Paul Boateng
Succeeded by	Stephen Timms
Economic Secretary to the Treasury
In office 8 June 2001 – 15 May 2002
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Melanie Johnson
Succeeded by	John Healey
Member of Parliament for Bolton West
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 May 1997
Preceded by	Tom Sackville
Majority	2,064 (5.1%)
Personal details
Born	(1968-05-09) 9 May 1968 Limavady, Northern Ireland
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Derek Gadd
Alma mater	Queen's College, Oxford London School of Economics

Ruth Maria Kelly (born 9 May 1968) is a British Labour Party politician, currently Member of Parliament for the Bolton West constituency, though she will stand down as MP at the next general election. She had previously been the Secretary of State for Transport, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Minister for Women and Equality and Secretary of State for Education and Skills, serving under both Gordon Brown and Tony Blair and their cabinets.

Background

Kelly was born in Limavady, Northern Ireland. She also lived briefly in the Republic of Ireland before moving to England where she attended Edgarley Hall - the prep school for Millfield School. She was privately educated at Sutton High School. After jumping up a year and sitting O-levels at Sutton High School at the age of 15, she decided to move back to Ireland to look after her ill grandmother. Her grandmother died after six weeks, but Kelly stayed for a year, living with her aunt and taking A-level French. She returned to England where she won a scholarship to the sixth-form of Westminster School to take her A-levels. She went on to The Queen's College, Oxford where she read Philosophy, Politics and Economics, graduating in 1989, and then to the London School of Economics gaining an MSc in Economics in 1992. She joined the Labour Party in 1990, becoming a member of the party's Bethnal Green & Stepney/Bow constituency branch. 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 married Derek John Gadd, a local government officer, in 1996, and they have four children.

Family history

Kelly's grandfather Philip Murphy was an Irish Republican Army (Old IRA) officer interned in 1922 by the Government of Northern Ireland. Murphy's detention file refers to him as 'quartermaster of the West Fermanagh IRA Battalion'. He went on hunger strike to protest at his detention. He was released unconditionally in June 1924 when internment ended.

Religion

Kelly is a practising Roman Catholic, a member of Opus Dei and regular attender at their meetings and events. Her brother, Ronan Kelly, is a supernumerary in the Opus Dei organisation. Previously, uncertainty has existed over Kelly's Opus Dei membership, partly because she herself has declined when asked to say whether or not she is a member, saying that the matter is a private one, and saying only that she has received 'spiritual support' from them.

Career as an MP

In the 1997 general election, Kelly gained the seat of Bolton West from the Conservatives while heavily pregnant, and gave birth to her first son eleven days later. She gained her place in parliament as Tony Blair became Prime Minister with Labour's landslide election victory.

She 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 Labour won the 2001 general election, Kelly was appointed as Economic Secretary to the Treasury. Her role focused on competition policy and small businesses. After a year she was promoted to be Financial Secretary to the Treasury, giving her responsibility for regulation of the financial services industry. In both positions her principal task was in the thorough revision of the Financial Services regulation system which was introduced by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Kelly brought in new regulations to tackle the funding of terrorism after the 11 September 2001 attacks.

Kelly was assigned the task of dealing with Equitable Life after the Penrose Report into the life insurance company was published. She rejected calls for government compensation to Equitable policyholders, on the grounds that the losses arose from actions of the company rather than from any defect of regulation, and that it was still trading. Equitable policyholders continued to demand redress.

As a mother of four young children, she refused to work the long hours normally associated with such positions and refused to take a red box in the evening whilst at the Treasury.

In a minor reshuffle, she was promoted to be Minister for the Cabinet Office on 9 September 2004, replacing Douglas Alexander. Kelly guided the Civil Contingencies Bill through its final stages in Parliament, which faced serious objections from some civil liberties campaigns.

Party loyalty

Kelly hardly ever rebels (votes) against the position of her Party and in the most divisive votes over Labour's term Kelly has voted according to the Party line. She voted for the Iraq war and subsequently voted against an independent investigation into the run-up to the war. Kelly also voted for the introduction of tuition Top-up fees in a vote that saw a massive rebellion amongst Labour MPs.

Ruth Kelly has also voted for the introduction of identity cards, voted for replacing Trident and argued against the addition of a sunset clause in part 2 of the controversial Civil Contingencies Act 2004.

In a free parliamentary vote on 20 May 2008, she voted for cutting the upper limit for abortions from 24 to 12 weeks, along with two other Catholic cabinet ministers Des Browne and Paul Murphy.

Secretary of State for Education and Skills

In the reshuffle following the resignation of David Blunkett on 15 December 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.

Reaction to Ruth Kelly's time as Secretary of State has been mixed. The Government's Extended Schools policy, which plans to open some schools from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and provide child-care services for working parents, has been dubbed by some as "Kelly hours" after Kelly. although this is a misnomer and a misapprehension as the National Childcare Strategy with before and after school care funded in most schools by the New Opportunities Fund pre-dated extended schools (and Ruth Kelly's ministerial tenure) by several years. The extended schools initiative is predicated on wider use of and access to schools as community resources, not just for parents and children. The plans led to the suggestion that Kelly championed the role of parents in the education system, though there were mixed feelings within the sector as to whether this is was a helpful stance. This perception changed with her proposals in the 2005 white paper to reduce the number and influence of parent governors in Trust Schools, as many then considered her interest to lie solely in the problems and issues of working parents.

Kelly attracted considerable criticism by rejecting the proposals of the Tomlinson report on education reform for the 14–19 age group, which suggested replacing A level exams with a four-tier diploma. After the 2005 election, it was rumoured that she was to be demoted back into her old post at the Treasury and although she kept her position at the DfES, she was said to have been "less than thrilled" by the appointment of Tony Blair's adviser Andrew Adonis as a Minister within her Department.

Sex offenders in schools controversy

On 9 January 2006, it came to light that Kelly’s department had granted permission for a man, Paul Reeve, who had been cautioned by police for viewing child pornography images and who was on a sex offenders register, to be employed at a school in Norwich on the basis that he had not been convicted of an offence. He and an unknown number of others on the sex offenders register, were not on the DfES prohibited list, "List 99". On 13 January, Kim Howells, a Minister of State at the DfES, admitted that it was he who had actually made the decision, in accordance with advice given to him by civil servants that the "person did not represent an ongoing threat to children but that he should be given a grave warning". In response to the critical media coverage surrounding the issue, Downing Street issued a statement confirming their confidence in Kelly and denying rumours that she was to be replaced.

There was further controversy when it transpired that another teacher, William Gibson, 59, who had been cleared to work at Portchester School in Bournemouth despite the fact that he had been convicted in 1980 for indecent assault on a 15-year-old girl and had been previously removed from three schools. A letter from the Department for Education that suggested the Secretary of State had considered his case and found that although his past actions had been unwise and unacceptable, he had undertaken teaching work to good effect since.

Trust schools

Main article: Education and Inspections Act 2006

A notable controversy in Ruth Kelly's time at the DfES was the proposed introduction of Trust schools. The Trusts were intended to be non-profit making and to have charitable status, although they could be formed by commercial enterprises. In fact one of the early DfES-hosted seminars on the establishment of Trusts included representatives from Microsoft and KPMG. But it is their ability to set their own admission arrangements that generated the most criticism.

A large number of Labour backbenchers, as well as numerous Labour luminaries like Neil Kinnock and former Education Secretary Estelle Morris, made known their opposition to the proposals and published an alternative white paper. Faced with such a rebellion, the government initially stressed that it would press on with the reforms. However new Tory leader David Cameron unexpectedly announced that these reforms were in line with Tory policies and that he would support the bill if presented in the proposed form. The government were faced with the prospect of pushing through their reforms only with opposition support and in the face of increased resistance from its own supporters.

When the Education and Inspections Bill 2006 was finally published on 28 February 2006, it contained much of what had been trailed, although most notable by its absence was any mention of "trust school". Foundation and Voluntary Aided schools were left to pick up the mantle of trust schools.

Religion and political views

The effect of her religious viewpoint on her opinions regarding controversial scientific questions has been of concern to some scientists who have speculated that her religious views could have an effect on government policy regarding stem cell research. It is also suggested by the Liberal Democrats that her personal beliefs are incompatible with her equality brief as they make her unable to champion gay rights following reports of a cabinet split on proposals to prevent religious organisations from refusing services to people on grounds of their sexuality.

Children's schooling

All four of Ruth Kelly's children started at a Roman Catholic Primary School, in Wapping, a voluntary aided school. However on 8 January 2007, the Daily Mirror revealed that she had withdrawn her son from the school, and — following professional advice — sent him to a preparatory school which specialises in the education of boys aged 7-13 with dyslexia and/or Developmental Dyspraxia. Kelly said the state schools in her borough, Tower Hamlets, did not adequately cater for her child's needs and that her intention was for him to attend the school for "a couple of years before he begins at a state secondary school". Though the additional cost for specialist support outside the state sector sometimes is paid for by the local authority, Kelly stated she has not and will not seek the help of the local authority in meeting these costs.

According to Ofsted inspection in 2002 "those with special educational needs, make particularly good progress" at English Martyrs Roman Catholic school, and that pupils generally meet "standards that are much better than those gained by pupils in similar schools". The school achieved the best exam results in the borough of Tower Hamlets and among the best in the UK, with 96% of children reaching the expected standard for English, and 100% for Maths and Science. The area's education authority, Tower Hamlets, also runs six special needs schools within reach of Kelly's home and responded to the controversy saying, "We are proud of the quality of education we offer to all children. We have a strong record in helping children with a wide range of learning needs to succeed."

Ian Gibson, Labour MP for Norwich North, called the decision "a slap in the face for the teachers and pupils in the school the child has been taken out of". However, Conservative party leader David Cameron, whose own disabled son Ivan attended a state special needs school, defended her decision, saying "People should recognise that politicians like everyone else are parents first and will act in the best interests of their children".

Kelly made a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission about the Mirror's reporting of the story, but the complaint was rejected, with the PCC ruling that the story was "a matter of considerable public interest", given that she is "a Cabinet minister - who had previously been Secretary of State for Education and Skills", and "even if government policy included an acceptance of private schooling for those with special needs, the fact that the complainant did not feel that the current state system could meet her child's requirements raised questions about the nature of publicly-funded schooling and its ability to cater for children with special needs - including those whose families would not be able to pay for private schooling."

Fathers for Justice attacks

On two occasions Kelly has been targeted by members of fathers' rights group Fathers 4 Justice in egg-throwing incidents. On 6 February 2006, she was to give evidence at Salford Magistrates Court in the case of Fathers 4 Justice protester Simon Wilmot-Coverdale in connection with an incident in April 2005 when an egg was thrown at her. As she left the court, she was again attacked; the egg smashing on the back of her head.

Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government

After the English local elections in May 2006, Ruth Kelly was appointed Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, a position created when these functions were split off from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. The Department also took over the Home Office's responsibilities for active communities and civic renewal. She was also given the post of Minister for Women and Equality. Ruth Kelly's successor at the Department for Education and Skills was Alan Johnson.

On 16 October 2006, she announced that her new role would involve cutting down on extremists within communities.

Gay equality issues

When she became Minister for Women and Equality, she was criticised on both BBC Radio 5 Live, and on the front page of The Independent of 10 May 2006, for having failed to support any measures in favour of gay rights since 1997 when the Labour government came to power. It was pointed out that she had absented herself from votes on such issues as equalisation of the age of consent, and gay adoption, and had voted for a motion that would prevent same-sex couples from adoption. Out of fourteen votes during the Blair government that have concerned equal gay rights, Ruth Kelly had only attended two. Kelly was also criticised for refusing to comment on whether she considered that homosexuality is a sin. Gay-rights activist Peter Tatchell commented: "Tony Blair would never appoint someone to a race equality post who had a lukewarm record of opposing racism".

In a letter published in The Times on 11 May 2006, the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Westminster voiced criticism to allegations that Ruth Kelly’s Catholicism might be considered incompatible with her role as Equality Minister. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor wrote "Ms Kelly may well be scrutinised for her fitness in office. That is a political judgement. But her Catholicism should not be a criterion in forming that judgement." However, the criticism to which this responded was not that she was a Catholic generally speaking, but that she allegedly agrees with the Catholic Church's specific teachings about homosexuality (and other issues) which some hold as contrary to the equality agenda which it is her ministerial duty to promote.

The Observer newspaper reported on 15 October 2006 that Kelly had joined the Prime Minister in seeking to exempt churches from new laws prohibiting discrimination against gays and lesbians in the provisions of goods and services, and in employment. In the light of these reports, the Liberal Democrat Equalities spokesperson, Lorely Burt, called for Kelly to give up her responsibility for equalities, claiming Kelly's personal beliefs were incompatible with defending gay rights. It was reported in January 2007 that Kelly supported an exemption for Catholic adoption agencies from new laws barring discrimination in adoption for same-sex couples, suggesting instead that applicants should instead be referred to other agencies.

Planning decisions

Ruth Kelly demonstrated some opposition to the development of skyscrapers from her first months as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. In November 2006, she stopped the Brunswick Quay proposal, which represented over £100 million worth of investment into Liverpool, from going ahead. The final report of the planners who carried out the public inquiry had recommended approval for the project. In December 2006, she called a public inquiry into the 20 Fenchurch Street tower in London's financial district, on the basis that a tall building would be "unsuitable for this site". In May 2007, she blocked a 42-storey, 120 m tower in the New England Quarter development in Brighton, designed by Allies and Morrison and being planned by the Beetham Organization. She approved the building of new homes and businesses in Walker, Newcastle, in a bid to regenerate the area.

Secretary of State for Transport

Ruth Kelly was appointed this position in Gordon Brown's new cabinet on 27 June when he reshuffled the cabinet. Some speculated she would be removed from the cabinet. Within a few days of entering her job, she faced tough work as she was responsible for securing the public's safety through transport after some attempted terrorist attacks. She will outline plans of the future of railway soon as well. She came under fire for admitting along with other Labour Ministers that she had smoked Cannabis as a teenager. She is currently looking at proposals to make the transport system safer, such as increasing the driving age to 18.

Support for Biofuels

Kelly's support for biofuels has drawn criticism from activists who feel that it impoverishes third world farmers to assuage first world environmental guilt. "If people starve because of biofuels, Ruth Kelly and her peers will have killed them," wrote George Monbiot in The Guardian. "Like all such crimes, it is perpetrated by cowards, attacking the weak to avoid confronting the strong."

Railways

Ruth Kelly has announced a major increase of railway capacity by providing extra trains across the country by 2010 which drew criticism for her London bias as most of the funding will be spent in the capital. Kelly gave the go-ahead in 2007 for billions of pounds of public money to be spent on the Crossrail project in London which caused outrage amongst MPs in other cities, especially Manchester, who have been told no public transport funding will be given without a Congestion Charge scheme.

Heathrow Expansion

Ruth Kelly has set out proposals for a third runway and a sixth terminal at Heathrow under new extensive plans. Gordon Brown admitted this was one of the biggest challenges which faced the UK Government over the coming years. The plans have been drawn up and are free to access here.

Misuse of Public Funds

In November 2007 it emerged that Kelly had misused part of her £10,000 communications allowance for party political material. The funds should have only been used for politically neutral material, and Kelly apologised for breaking the rules.

Cabinet Resignation

Ruth Kelly announced her intention to resign from the cabinet to spend more time with her family. This ended her time as Transport Secretary and cabinet minister after four years. She has since declared her intention not to seek re-election to parliament at the next general election. Damian McBride, a former senior Labour Party strategist, was shifted from being Gordon Brown's political spokesperson to Number 10, after criticism of how he handled Ruth Kelly's resignation.

See also

• Cabinet of the United Kingdom
• List of Northern Ireland members of the Privy Council
• Teachings of Opus Dei
• Opus Dei and politics

External links

• Communities and Local Government page
• Women & Equality Unit
• Guardian Unlimited Politics — Ask Aristotle: Ruth Kelly MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com — Ruth Kelly MP
• BBC Profile (May 2006)
• BBC Politics page
• News article on egg 'maniac'
• Ruth Kelly website by the Labour Party

Audio clips

• Talking about literacy on the Westminster Hour in April 2005
• Speaking on the Today programme in 2002 about Stock Market uncertainties when Financial Secretary to the Treasury

Video clips

• Being 'egged' by Fathers for Justice
• Her housing policies being looked at closely

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