56 Facts About Ruth Kelly

Ruth Maria Kelly was born on 9 May 1968 and is the chair of Water UK, the trade association representing all of the water and wastewater companies of the United Kingdom.

Ruth Kelly was previously a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Bolton West from 1997 until she stood down in 2010.

Ruth Kelly's mother was a teacher and her father ran a pharmacy.

Ruth Kelly lived briefly in the Republic of Ireland before moving to England, where she was educated at a number of private schools.

Ruth Kelly initially attended Edgarley Hall, the preparatory school for Millfield School.

Ruth Kelly was then educated at the independent Sutton High School, run by the Girls' Day School Trust After being moved 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.

Ruth Kelly's grandmother died after six weeks, but Kelly stayed for a year, living with her aunt and taking A-level French.

Ruth Kelly returned to England on winning a scholarship to the sixth-form of Westminster School.

Ruth Kelly then undertook postgraduate study at the London School of Economics, where she was awarded a MSc degree in economics in 1992.

Ruth Kelly taught at University of Navarra, after she joined the Labour Party in 1990, becoming a member of the party's Bethnal Green and Stepney constituency party.

Ruth Kelly 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.

Ruth Kelly married Derek John Gadd, a local government officer, in 1996, and they have four children.

Ruth Kelly went on hunger strike to protest at his detention.

Ruth Kelly was released unconditionally in June 1924, when internment ended.

Ruth Kelly remarried Mary Agnes and had another six children.

Ruth Kelly is a practising Roman Catholic, a member of the Opus Dei, and a regular attender at their meetings and events.

Ruth Kelly's brother, Ronan Kelly, is a member of the group.

Previously, uncertainty existed over Ruth Kelly's membership; she declined to say whether or not she was a member, saying only that she had received 'spiritual support' from the organisation.

Ruth Kelly is Vice President of the Catholic Union of Great Britain.

Ruth Kelly gained her place in parliament as Tony Blair became Prime Minister with Labour's landslide election victory.

Ruth Kelly served on the Treasury Select Committee; she was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Agriculture Minister, Nick Brown, from 1998.

Ruth 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.

Ruth Kelly's role focused on competition policy and small businesses.

Ruth Kelly brought in new regulations to tackle the funding of terrorism after September 2001 attacks.

Ruth Kelly was assigned the task of dealing with Equitable Life after the Penrose Report into the life insurance company was published.

Ruth Kelly 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.

Ruth Kelly guided the Civil Contingencies Bill through its final stages in Parliament, which faced serious objections from some civil liberties campaigns.

Ruth Kelly voted for the Iraq War, and subsequently voted against an independent investigation into the run-up to the war.

Ruth Kelly voted for the introduction of tuition top-up fees, in a vote that saw a massive rebellion amongst Labour MPs.

Ruth Kelly 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 Civil Contingencies Act 2004.

Ruth Kelly became the youngest woman ever to sit in the Cabinet.

All four of Ruth Kelly's children started at a Roman Catholic primary school in Wapping, east London.

Twice Ruth Kelly has been targeted by members of fathers' rights group Fathers 4 Justice in egg-throwing incidents.

The first was in April 2005; protester Simon Wilmot-Coverdale was charged, and in February 2006 Ruth Kelly gave evidence at Salford Magistrates Court.

Ruth Kelly was given the post of Minister for Women and Equality.

Criticism intensified when Ruth Kelly later became Minister for Women and Equality, and criticism was aired on BBC Radio 5 Live and the front page of The Independent in 2006 over her stance on homosexuality.

Blair's government repealed many laws that were perceived as being anti-gay, but Ruth Kelly consistently opted out of voting on her party's measures.

Ruth Kelly opposed lowering the age of consent for homosexuality, as well as voting against outlawing discrimination against gay couples adopting children.

Out of fourteen votes during the Blair government surrounding the political issues of homosexuality, Ruth Kelly had only attended two.

The Observer newspaper reported on 15 October 2006 that Ruth Kelly had joined the Prime Minister in seeking to exempt churches from new equality laws which would require Christian churches to treat homosexuality with equal validity to heterosexuality, which Ruth Kelly felt went against Catholic teaching.

Lorely Burt, the Liberal Democrat Equalities spokesperson, who opposed allowing churches to preach against homosexuality in schools, called for Ruth Kelly to be removed from the Cabinet.

Ruth Kelly approved the building of new homes and businesses in Walker, Newcastle, in a bid to regenerate the area.

Ruth Kelly came under fire for admitting along with other Labour Ministers that she had smoked cannabis as a teenager.

Ruth Kelly 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 would be spent there.

Ruth 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 had been told that no public transport funding would be given without a congestion charge scheme.

Ruth Kelly set out proposals for a third runway and a sixth terminal at Heathrow under new extensive plans.

The funds should have only been used for politically neutral material, and Ruth Kelly apologised for breaking the rules.

In September 2008, Ruth Kelly announced her intention to resign from the cabinet to spend more time with her family.

Ruth Kelly did not stand at the 2010 general election.

Ruth Kelly was insured for this damage but did not claim on that insurance after being advised by the fees office that a reasonable amount could be claimed under the allowances system.

In May 2010, Ruth Kelly became the Global Head of Client Strategy at HSBC.

In 2015, Ruth Kelly left HSBC and was appointed to become Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and Enterprise at St Mary's University, Twickenham.

Ruth Kelly has since left St Mary's University and now works for the Vatican on its financial portfolio.

In 2010, Ruth Kelly supported David Miliband for the leadership of the Labour Party over his brother, Ed.

In 2022 Ruth Kelly joined the right-leaning think tank Policy Exchange.

Ruth Kelly replaced Anthony Ferrar as chair of Water UK in March 2023.