Gillian Keegan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.jpg) Official portrait, 2022 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Secretary of State for Education | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 25 October 2022 – 5 July 2024 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Rishi Sunak | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Kit Malthouse | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Bridget Phillipson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Member of Parliament forChichester | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 8 June 2017 – 30 May 2024 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Andrew Tyrie | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Jess Brown-Fuller | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Member ofChichester District Council forRogate | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 23 October 2014 – 12 April 2018 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | John Kingston | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Kate O'Kelly | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1968-03-13)13 March 1968 (age 57)[1][2] Leigh,Lancashire, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Party | Conservative | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Michael Keegan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Relatives | Denis Keegan (father-in-law) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Residence(s) | Petworth,West Sussex, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Education | St Augustine of Canterbury Secondary School | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Liverpool John Moores University London Business School | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | gilliankeegan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Gillian Keegan (néeGibson; born 13 March 1968)[3] is a British politician who served asSecretary of State for Education from 2022 to 2024. She previously served asParliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Apprenticeships and Skills from 2020 to 2021,Minister of State for Care and Mental Health from 2021 to 2022,Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Africa from September to October 2022. A member of theConservative Party, Keegan served as theMember of Parliament (MP) forChichester from2017 to 2024.
She was appointedParliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Apprenticeships and Skills in theFebruary 2020 reshuffle byBoris Johnson. In the2021 cabinet reshuffle, Johnson promoted her toMinister of State for Care and Mental Health. She was demoted toParliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Africa whenLiz Truss was appointed prime minister in September 2022. In October 2022, she was appointedSecretary of State for Education by new prime ministerRishi Sunak, a position she held until the2024 general election, in which she was unseated byJess Brown-Fuller of theLiberal Democrats.
Gillian Gibson was born inLeigh,Lancashire,[4] to an office manager father and a mother who did secretarial work.[5] She went toprimary school inYorkshire,[4] and grew up inKnowsley, Merseyside, going toSt Augustine of Canterbury Secondary School inHuyton. She was the only pupil to get 10O-Levels at her school.[5] Keegan started her career aged 16 as an apprentice at theAC Delco motor vehicle components factory inKirkby.
She then studiedBusiness Studies atLiverpool John Moores University, graduating with a bachelor's degree. Keegan also graduated with a Master of Science in Strategy and Leadership (Sloan Fellowship), from theLondon Business School in 2011.[6]
After university, Keegan had a business career working at Delco Electronics (part of theGeneral Motors Group),NatWest Bank (senior buyer),MasterCard International (commercial director), Amadeus IT Group (group vice president of Multinational Customer Group based in Madrid) andTravelport (chief marketing officer)[7] for over 27 years.[7]
Keegan has said that it was her experiences oftrade unionism and theMilitant-controlledLiverpool City Council while working in Kirkby in her youth during the 1980s that convinced her to support the Conservative Party. However, she did not become active in politics until 2014.[8] In 2015, she was advised to become an MP byJustine Greening, whom she had met at a London Business School (LBS) reunion. Keegan has said that this demonstrated the power of the LBS network.[9]
Keegan was elected as a councillor for theRogate ward onChichester District Council in 2014.[10] She was appointed cabinet member for commercial services in May 2015.[11] She stood down as a councillor in February 2018, once elected to Parliament.
At the2015 general election, Keegan stood inSt Helens South and Whiston, coming second with 15.9% of the vote behind theLabour candidateMarie Rimmer.[12][13]
After the election, she became director ofWomen2Win—an organisation founded byTheresa May andAnne Jenkin, Baroness Jenkin of Kennington in 2005 to help elect more women Conservative MPs to Parliament.[14] She left the position in September 2017, having been elected to Parliament.[15]
Keegan was selected as the Conservative Parliamentary candidate forChichester in May 2017.[14] At the snap2017 general election, she was elected to Parliament as MP for Chichester with 60.1% of the vote and a majority of 22,621.[16] She is the constituency's first female MP.[10]
In September 2017, she was appointed to thePublic Accounts Committee.[17]
In February 2019, Keegan was appointed as MP Apprenticeship Ambassador byAnne Milton, with responsibility to support apprenticeship schemes and promote them both within Parliament and to businesses within the UK, working alongside the Apprenticeship Ambassador Network consisting of various advocates of apprenticeship schemes.[18][19]
Keegan endorsedRory Stewart during the2019 Conservative Party leadership election.[20]
At the2019 general election, Keegan was re-elected as MP for Chichester with a decreased vote share of 57.8% and a decreased majority of 21,490.[21] However, at the2024 general election, Chichester had the third largest Conservative to Liberal Democrat swing in the country, with an increase of 28.9% for the Liberal Democrats,[22] leaving her in second place with a decreased vote share of 25.7%.[23]
Keegan was appointedParliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) toHM Treasury in September 2018.[24] In January 2019, she became PPS to theSecretary of State for Defence.[25] She became PPS to theHome Secretary in May 2019.[26] She became PPS to theSecretary of State for Health and Social Care in September 2019.
In February 2020, Keegan was appointedParliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Apprenticeships and Skills, a junior ministerial role at theDepartment for Education,[27] and was the first former apprentice to hold the office.[28]
In August 2020, Keegan was criticised for being on holiday during theGCSE and A-level grading controversy. She defended herself by stating that she was not the minister responsible forA-level andGCSE qualifications. She said that although she had been the duty minister for the first two weeks of summer recess, she had obtained special permission to take her government computer with her to continue working during this period.[29]
In theSeptember 2021 reshuffle, Keegan was appointedMinister of State for Care and Mental Health.[30][31] FollowingBoris Johnson's resignation as prime minister, Keegan released a statement in which she praised the prime minister's leadership.[32]
Keegan endorsedRishi Sunak in theJuly–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election[33] and was subsequently demoted whenLiz Truss became prime minister in September 2022, serving asParliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Africa.
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Keegan again endorsed Sunak in theOctober 2022 Conservative Party leadership election and was appointedSecretary of State for Education.[34] She was sworn as a member of thePrivy Council on 27 October 2022.[35]
On 5 January 2023, Keegan represented theBritish government at thefuneral ofPope Benedict XVI.[36]
In July 2023, Keegan was reported to have suggested that headteachers should collect absent pupils from home in order to return them to school.[37] This led to criticism from some school leaders.[38]
Following an interview on 4 September 2023 withITV News about theRAAC crisis in a number of schools in England, Keegan, believing the recording had ended, remarked: "Does anyone ever say 'you know what, you've done a fucking good job [be]cause everyone else has sat on their arse and done nothing'? No signs of that, no?". She later apologised for using profanity and described it as "off the cuff" and "unnecessary".[39][40][41] Keegan said that she did not expect to be personally thanked for her performance and that it was instead a reference to theDepartment for Education's "leadership role" in the crisis. Earlier that day, it was revealed that the DfE had spent £32 million refurbishing its office space in Whitehall. During an interview, Keegan appeared to be unaware of these costs.[42][43]
Keegan lives inPetworth inWest Sussex with her second husband, Michael, and has two stepsons.[44]
Michael Keegan is a former Head ofFujitsu UK and Ireland, appointed in 2014. He later had a role as a crown representative to the Cabinet Office, managing cross-government relationships withBAE Systems as a strategic supplier to the Government.[45][46] In January 2024 he voluntarily resigned from his part-time government role during a period of intense scrutiny into the role of Fujitsu and its Horizon software in thePost Office Scandal.[47]
Keegan and her husband jointly own a house in Petworth, a flat in London, a property in France and a house inAndalusia, Spain.[48]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forChichester 2017–2024 | Succeeded by |
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| Preceded by | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Apprenticeships and Skills 2020–2021 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of State for Care and Mental Health 2021–2022 | Vacant |
| Preceded byasParliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Africa 2022 | |
| Preceded by | Secretary of State for Education 2022–2024 | Succeeded by |
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