Amber Rudd

Amber Rudd      (Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change)
Born	1 August 1963 London, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Cheltenham Ladies College, University of Edinburgh
Children	2
Spouse	A. A. Gill
Member of	Franco-British Colloque
Party	Conservative
Relatives	Roland Rudd (lobbyist)
Member of Parliament for Hastings and Rye In office 6 May 2010 - Present  Minister of State,  Department of Energy and Climate Change In office 15 July 2014 - 7 May 2015  Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change  In office 11 May 2015 - Present  Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for Climate Change In office 15 July 2014 - 11 May 2015  Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer In office 10 September 2012 - 7 October 2013

Amber Rudd (born London, 1 August 1963) is a British Conservative Party politician who was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for the East Sussex constituency of Hastings and Rye at the May 2010 general election, defeating the incumbent Labour MP Michael Foster.

Following the 7 May 2015 general election, Amber Rudd was appointed Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change and became a member of the Privy Council.

Education

From 1974-1979, Amber Rudd was educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College, a boarding independent school in Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, and from 1979-1981 at Queen's College, London, an independent day school for girls in London, followed by the University of Edinburgh.

Business career

After graduating from Edinburgh University with a degree in history, Amber Rudd joined J.P. Morgan & Co., working in both London and New York. She then worked in venture capital in London, raising funds for small businesses. After working as a financial journalist, she founded specialist executive search and human resources consultancy Lawnstone Ltd, with clients in financial services and in business media. She helped to find extras for the film Four Weddings and a Funeral for which she was credited as the "aristocracy co-ordinator", and appeared briefly in one of the church scenes in the film.

Political career

At the 2005 general election, Amber Rudd was the Conservative candidate for the Labour-held seat of Liverpool, Garston.

Her name was subsequently added to the Conservative A-List and selected to contest the Hastings and Rye constituency in 2006, moving to the old town in 2007. In the 2010 General Election, Rudd was elected as the MP for Hastings & Rye with a majority of 1,993 votes. Shortly afterwards, Rudd was elected to serve as a Conservative member on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee.

Amber Rudd is vice-chair of the Parliamentary committee on Female Genital Mutilation, which has campaigned against FGM and called for tougher legal penalties in the area. She has championed the cause of sex equality as chairperson of the APPG for Sex Equality, which published a report on women in work. Rudd chaired a cross-party enquiry into unplanned pregnancies which called for statutory sex and relationships education in all secondary schools. She has also called for a higher proportion of women in Cabinet.

In September 2012, she was made Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne. In October 2013, she became an assistant government whip. In July 2014, Rudd was appointed Minister of State at the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

Nuclear power advocacy

In July 2015, Private Eye reported that Amber Rudd faces a potential conflict of interest because she is to decide on the proposed Hinkley Point C nuclear power station whilst her brother Roland Rudd is chairman (and founder) of Finsbury, which represents a construction company with a £100m contract to help build the nuclear plant. The Private Eye report noted that despite the MPs’ register of interests including a new category of 'family members engaged in lobbying' Rudd "makes no mention of her brother or his interests", and added, "The Eye asked the Department of Energy & Climate Change if Rudd had told its permanent secretary about Roland and Finsbury (another conflict of interest procedure) but it did not reply".

The links between decisions to be taken by the Department for Energy and Climate Change and Rudd’s brother’s lobbying interests had previously been reported in The Daily Mail. In May 2015, the newspaper’s chief political correspondent, Daniel Martin, reported that Rudd would not be making a decision on plans by Halite Energy Group to store natural gas in underground caves in Lancashire. Halite is represented by the lobbying firm Rudd’s brother chairs. Martin reported: "It is one of the first big decisions in Energy Secretary Amber Rudd’s in-tray – but she won’t be making it. Last night Miss Rudd conceded that she would play no part in the decision. But the Department for Energy and Climate Change insisted that this was not because of any conflict of interest. A spokesman said the decision was never due to have been made by her, and that it would be down to a junior minister. But last night officials were unable to say which minister would make the decision."

Subsidy for nuclear, not for solar

In November 2015, Amber Rudd announced the UK government would drop the subsidy for solar energy. However, the government agreed to pay the nuclear industry a subsidy that dwarfs all the subsidies ever given to the coal and renewable industries combined, and what is more will be paid to the Chinese and the French. Craig Murray blogged about this: "I am lost for words."

Comments about Hastings

In April 2013, a profile of Amber Rudd appeared in the Financial Times which caused upset to some in her constituency as it reported her referring to "people who are on benefits, who prefer to be on benefits by the seaside...moving down here to have easier access to friends and drugs and drink". She responded by stating that "I am incredibly optimistic about Hastings. I described the well-known problems that Hastings has to the Financial Times but I also talked about the incredible investment in the town, the fact that unemployment is going down and that there are many positive things to say about it."

Local issues

Amber Rudd has been actively involved in the campaign for the local fishing fleet in Hastings. Her maiden speech advocated wholesale reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP)

Rudd has also campaigned successfully for the construction of the Hastings to Bexhill link road. In early 2013 the Government gave the road the go ahead for construction after ten years of campaigning, and Rudd is now spearheading a campaign called "Complete The Link" to see the final stage of the road get funding for construction.

Personal life

Amber Rudd married the writer A.A. Gill in 1990. Rudd and Gill have two children, Flora and Alasdair. The couple separated in 1995 and later divorced.

Amber Rudd is a trustee of the Snowdon Trust, an organisation that helps young disabled people access education. Rudd has been director of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize since 2003, an annual award for a first-time female playwright in the English language. She also serves as a governor of The St Leonards Academy in Hastings.

Her mother was briefly styled Marchioness Conyngham while married to Frederick Conyngham, 7th Marquess Conyngham.

References

This page imported content from Wikipedia on 28 July 2015.
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