Ms Amber Rudd MP
Hastings and Rye Conservative Party
Energy and Climate Change Secretary
Profile
Policy interests
Ms Rudd's policy interests include women's issues, transport, finance, environment, food and rural affairs. In her constituency she has campaigned for better transport links, including the construction of the Hastings to Bexhill Link Road and the electrification of the Hastings to Ashford railway line.
Ms Rudd used her maiden speech to attack the Common Fisheries Policy endorsed by Defra, and told Parliament it had made the lives of fishermen in her coastal constituency harder.
Appointments
Ms Rudd was appointed Energy Secretary following the Conservative victory in the 2015 General Election.
She had previously been made Climate Change Minister in the July 2014 reshuffle. Her responsibilities in this role included energy consumers, the Green Deal, the Renewable Heat Incentive, energy efficiency, fuel poverty, the Green Investment Bank, green jobs, climate science and innovation.
Previously, she had been an Assistant Whip since October 2013 and was PPS to Chancellor George Osborne from September 2012 until the October reshuffle.
Memberships
Ms Rudd served on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee from 2010 to 2012. She is also Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Sex Equality and Treasurer of the APPG on Female Genital Mutilation.
In 2012, she chaired a cross-party parliamentary inquiry into unplanned pregnancies which revealed that over half of such pregnancies happened because people were not using sufficient contraception.
Election to Parliament
Ms Rudd was elected to Parliament in 2010, securing a 1,993 majority in the Labour/Conservative marginal seat of Hastings and Rye. She unsuccessfully contested Liverpool Garston in 2005, coming third behind Labour MP Maria Eagle and the Liberal Democrat candidate.
She was re-elected at the 2015 General Election with an increased majority of 4,796.
Life before Parliament
Before becoming an MP, Ms Rudd worked for investment bank JP Morgan and as a head-hunter, specialising in the recruitment of journalists for financial publications. She also worked as a financial journalist herself.
Personal life
Ms Rudd was born in London, and brought up between Kensington and her family's home in Wiltshire. She studied history at the University of Edinburgh and has a son and a daughter with her ex-husband, the writer A. A. Gill.
Ms Rudd is President of Hastings Old Town Traders Association and her interests include the theatre, cinema and walking.
