Gillian Keegan

Gillian Keegan (née Gibson; born 13 March 1968) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Education from 2022 to 2024. She previously served as Parliamentary 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 the Conservative Party, Keegan served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Chichester from 2017 to 2024.

She was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Apprenticeships and Skills in the February 2020 reshuffle by Boris Johnson. In the 2021 cabinet reshuffle, Johnson promoted her to Minister of State for Care and Mental Health. She was demoted to Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Africa when Liz Truss was appointed prime minister in September 2022. In October 2022, she was appointed Secretary of State for Education by new prime minister Rishi Sunak, a position she held until the 2024 general election, in which she was unseated by Jess Brown-Fuller of the Liberal Democrats.

Gillian Gibson was born in Leigh, Lancashire, to an office manager father and a mother who did secretarial work. She went to primary school in Yorkshire, and grew up in Knowsley, Merseyside, going to St Augustine of Canterbury Secondary School in Huyton. She was the only pupil to get 10 O-Levels at her school. Keegan started her career aged 16 as an apprentice at the AC Delco motor vehicle components factory in Kirkby.

She then studied Business Studies at Liverpool John Moores University, graduating with a bachelor's degree. Keegan also graduated with a Master of Science in Strategy and Leadership (Sloan Fellowship) from the London Business School in 2011.

After university, Keegan had a business career working at Delco Electronics (part of the General Motors Group), NatWest Bank (senior buyer), MasterCard International (commercial director), Amadeus IT Group (group vice president of Multinational Customer Group based in Madrid) and Travelport (chief marketing officer) for over 27 years.

Keegan has said that it was her experiences of trade unionism and the Militant-controlled Liverpool 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. In 2015, she was advised to become an MP by Justine Greening, whom she had met at a London Business School (LBS) reunion. Keegan has said that this demonstrated the power of the LBS network.

Keegan was elected as a councillor for the Rogate ward on Chichester District Council in 2014. She was appointed cabinet member for commercial services in May 2015. She stood down as a councillor in February 2018, once elected to Parliament.

At the 2015 general election, Keegan stood in St Helens South and Whiston, coming second with 15.9% of the vote behind the Labour candidate Marie Rimmer.