On her first full day as deputy prime minister, Therese Coffey accidentally played her Dr Dre ringtone live on-air – and faced questions about her health, religion and voting record.
As a long-time friend and ally of Liz Truss, the new PM was quick to make her health secretary – and her second in command.
An MP since 2010, after several failed attempts at running for political office, Ms Coffey is the UK’s first female deputy prime minister and the first woman to hold her parliamentary seat.
‘Labour ruined my city – I realised politics mattered’
Therese Coffey was born in Lancashire but moved to Liverpool at the age of six.
She grew up with two parent teachers and briefly, despite the city’s deep Labour history, a Conservative MP.
“People might find that hard to believe,” she told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby earlier this year.
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“But it wasn’t for very long. Then I felt my home city of Liverpool was ruined by militant Labour.
“And I just realised that politics mattered.”
Her sister Clare, who has worked as a secretary in her parliamentary office since 2015, inspired her to go into politics after getting involved in the local Conservatives herself.
After attending two private schools she got into Oxford, where she was a self-confessed “young Tory”.
She then went on to do a PhD in chemistry at University College London – something she didn’t continue in her career – but something she told The Spectator podcast has helped her develop an “evidence-based approach” at work.
Her first jobs were in finance, which included a finance director role at Mars Drinks UK and finance manager at the BBC.
Despite thinking she would “never be good enough to be an MP”, she first tried getting into politics by running for South East England in the European Parliament elections in 2004.
Although the Conservatives won four seats, Ms Coffey was seventh on the list.
She tried again in 2009, this time missing out by just one on the Tory list after the party secured another four seats.
In the 2005 General Election she stood in Wrexham, north Wales, but came third.
Finally, in 2010 she won a place in parliament, replacing John Gummer in the safe Tory constituency of Suffolk Coastal after he became embroiled in the expenses scandal.
She credits his fall from grace and David Cameron’s endorsement of 50:50 male-female candidate shortlists with her election success.
Meningitis left her ‘close to death’
Her first big job in parliament was as assistant government whip in 2014, followed by deputy leader of the Commons in 2015.
Under Theresa May she spent three years as a parliamentary undersecretary at DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs).
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In that time, in 2018, the now-health secretary developed an ear infection that “within a few days” saw her hospitalised with potentially fatal meningitis.
She told The Spectator: “I presented myself to the NHS a few times.
“They didn’t quite get what it was. It was quite shocking, just quite how close to death I came.”
It left her in hospital for a month, forced to relearn some of her basic functions, including knowing what the word for slippers was.
Despite having to “change some of the ways she worked”, she made a full recovery, and when Boris Johnson was elected in 2019, he gave her the job of work and pensions secretary.
In that brief she consistently voted against increasing benefits in line with inflation – and for the chronically ill or disabled.
But during the pandemic when then-chancellor Rishi Sunak’s £20 Universal Credit uplift was due to come to an end, she fought – albeit unsuccessfully – for it to stay.
Would ‘prefer that people didn’t have abortions’
Outside of her cabinet roles, she has faced criticism for her views on abortion, notably from the head of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS).
A devoted Catholic, she voted against the recent continuation of at-home terminations and abortion in Northern Ireland.
Her religious views may also have had a bearing on her vote against same-sex marriage.
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She told Beth Rigby in June: “I don’t know that I wear my religion on my sleeve, but it is undoubtedly part of who I am.
“There are issues that get decided in parliament – great ethical issues of the day – and so of course I’ll participate in that.”
On abortion specifically she added that: “Of course I would prefer that people didn’t have abortions, but I’m not going to condemn people that do.”
‘Not the perfect role model’
In one of her first broadcast interviews after her so-called “political soulmate” Ms Truss made her health secretary, the 50-year-old was quizzed on her weight and her like of cigars.
She told LBC’s Nick Ferrari that she “appreciates I may not be the role model”, but that her own experiences as an NHS patient will see her make them the priority.
Shortly beforehand, she had to apologise that her 8am alarm was sounding from her handbag – to the tune of Dr Dre’s song ‘Still Dre’.
When she isn’t tackling the health service backlogs and fighting off her Conservative colleagues who are calling for the health and social care National Insurance levy to be scrapped, you may find her at a Liverpool FC game or singing karaoke.
Famed for her karaoke birthday parties, which journalists are banned from and once saw Liz Truss rap alongside former chancellor George Osborne to LunchMoney Lewis’ ‘Bills’, ‘Tiz’ as she is nicknamed, says they are a chance for MPs to “relax”.
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Her preferred karaoke songs are Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen and Sweet Caroline.
Commenting on a picture of her with a spilled drink and a cigar in hand at one Spectator summer party, she said: “It’s there, it will always be used, it’s just one of those things.
“I have learned a few lessons – try not to smoke cigars in public.”
But when quizzed about her partying by Beth Rigby, she added: “A few years ago, I was pretty ill.
“It reinforced my joy for life, and I’ll keep living life to the full.”
