Gillian Keegan
 Gillian Keegan    (politician) | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | Gillian Gibson 13 March 1968 Leigh, Lancashire, England | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | British | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Liverpool John Moores University, London Business School | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Michael Keegan | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Interests | Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Party | Conservative | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Gillian Keegan is the UK Education Secretary. A member of the Conservative Party, she was previously Minister of State for Care and Mental Health from 2021 to 2022 and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Africa in 2022. She has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Chichester since 2017.
Using the f-word
In September 2023, the Education Secretary had to apologise for her language after being caught swearing on mic as she expressed irritation over the concrete crisis.
Having finished an interview with ITV News, Gillian Keegan used the f-word as she asked "does anyone ever say you've done a good job because everyone else has sat on their arse and done nothing?"
In a later interview she said she was sorry for her "off-the-cuff" remark. During the initial interview, the education secretary was pushed on whether the government had done enough to fix the problem of crumbling concrete - also known as reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) - in school buildings.
More than 100 schools have been fully or partially closed due to the risk. Ms Keegan said local authorities and multi-academy trusts had always had the responsibility for maintaining the buildings. She added it was "not the job" of the Department for Education to maintain school buildings but it had chosen to contact schools in order to have information on RAAC collected centrally. She said that following a collapse in a Kent school in 2018, the department had sent warnings to "the people responsible".
A Downing Street source said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was satisfied with Ms Keegan's apology:
- "I think what will be at the forefront of parents' minds is the situation of their school, and the government's focus today has been on providing further transparency.
- "What the public will continue to find is that in the vast majority of cases, their child's school is not affected," a spokesman said.[1]
