Rachel Maclean (politician)
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Rachel Helen Maclean (
née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
Cooke; born 3 October 1965) is a
Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...
politician who has been the
Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
for
Redditch Redditch is a town, and local government district, in north-east Worcestershire, England, approximately south of Birmingham. The district has a population of 85,000 as of 2019. In the 19th century, it became the international centre for the ...
in
Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...
since
2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
and current Conservative Party Vice Chairman. She served as the Minister of State for Victims and Vulnerability from September to October 2022. Maclean served as
Parliamentary Private Secretary A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the minister in the H ...
(PPS) to the
Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...
,
Sajid Javid Sajid Javid (; born 5 December 1969) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from June 2021 to July 2022, having previously served as Home Secretary from 2018 to 2019 and Chancellor of the Exchequer f ...
, from September 2019 until February 2020. She was appointed
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (or just Parliamentary Secretary, particularly in departments not led by a Secretary of State) is the lowest of three tiers of government minister in the UK government, immediately junior to a Minister ...
at the
Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...
in February 2020, then
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding (also known as Minister for Safeguarding) is a junior role in the British Home Office. It is held by Sarah Dines MP from October 2022. Responsibilities The minister has the following r ...
from September 2021 until July 2022. Prior to her political career, she worked for the bank
HSBC HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tri ...
and co-founded technology publishers
Packt Packt is a publishing company founded in 2003 headquartered in Birmingham, UK,with offices in Mumbai, India. Packt primarily publishes print and electronic books and videos relating to information technology, including programming, web de ...
with her husband.


Early life and education

Rachel Helen Cooke was born on 3 October 1965 in Madras (now
Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
), India, to David and Anthea Cooke (now Kaan). She studied Experimental Psychology at
St Hugh's College, Oxford St Hugh's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. It is located on a site on St Margaret's Road, to the north of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth as a women's college, and accepte ...
and obtained a master's degree in Work and Occupational Psychology at
Aston University Aston University (abbreviated as ''Aston''. for post-nominals) is a public research university situated in the city centre of Birmingham, England. Aston began as the Birmingham Municipal Technical School in 1895, evolving into the UK's first c ...
. After graduation, she entered a fast track management scheme in 1989 at
HSBC HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tri ...
which involved working in Australia, Japan and China. In 2005, Maclean founded a publishing company specialising in
information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...
with her husband, David.


Parliamentary career

Maclean contested the Birmingham Northfield seat in the general election of
2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
, finishing second behind the incumbent Labour Party MP
Richard Burden Richard Haines Burden (born 1 September 1954) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Northfield from 1992 to 2019. He served as a Shadow Transport Minister from 2013 to 2016 and again from 2016 ...
. She voted for the United Kingdom (UK) to remain within the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
(EU) in the June 2016 membership referendum. In April 2017,
Karen Lumley Karen Elizabeth Lumley (born 28 March 1964) is a Conservative Party politician in England. She was elected the Member of Parliament (MP) for Redditch in Worcestershire in the general election of May 2010, when she defeated former Home Secretary ...
, Conservative MP for
Redditch Redditch is a town, and local government district, in north-east Worcestershire, England, approximately south of Birmingham. The district has a population of 85,000 as of 2019. In the 19th century, it became the international centre for the ...
announced that she would not contest her seat in the June snap general election due to ill health. The following month, Maclean was selected to be the Conservative candidate in the election. She won the seat at the election with 23,652 votes and a majority of 7,363 (16.3%). In parliament, she sat on the
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department for ...
between September 2017 and June 2018. In the same year, Maclean also co chaired
Andy Street Andrew John Street (born 11 June 1963) is a British businessman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politician who was the managing director of John Lewis & Partners, John Lewis from 2007 to 2016, when he resigned to run for Mayor o ...
's successful campaign to become the
Mayor of the West Midlands The Mayor of the West Midlands is a Directly elected mayors in England and Wales, directly elected political post who chairs the West Midlands Combined Authority, covering the Birmingham metropolitan area and Coventry. 2017 West Midlands mayora ...
. In July, in her maiden parliamentary speech, she commented that her main priority would be 'to fight to protect and strengthen local health services', especially the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch. In February 2018, Maclean was elected to be the chair of the
All-Party Parliamentary Group An all-party parliamentary group (APPG) is a grouping in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that is composed of members of parliament from all political parties, but have no official status within Parliament. Description and functions All-party ...
(APPG) on Women in Parliament. She is also the chair of the APPG on Carers and the APPG on Endangered Species. The following month, she was appointed as a
Parliamentary Private Secretary A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the minister in the H ...
(PPS) within the Home Office. In March 2019, Maclean voted for then Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit withdrawal agreement. She supported
Michael Gove Michael Andrew Gove (; born Graeme Andrew Logan, 26 August 1967) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations since 2021. He has been Member of Parli ...
in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election. In September 2019, she was appointed as PPS to the
Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...
,
Sajid Javid Sajid Javid (; born 5 December 1969) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from June 2021 to July 2022, having previously served as Home Secretary from 2018 to 2019 and Chancellor of the Exchequer f ...
. She was the
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (or just Parliamentary Secretary, particularly in departments not led by a Secretary of State) is the lowest of three tiers of government minister in the UK government, immediately junior to a Minister ...
at the
Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...
in the
Second Johnson ministry The second Johnson ministry began on 16 December 2019, three days after Boris Johnson's audience with Queen Elizabeth II where she invited him to form a new administration following the 2019 general election, in which the Conservative Party w ...
since February 2020. In September 2021, following the withdrawal of foreign defence forces from Afghanistan and takeover by the
Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...
, Maclean was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Safeguarding) at the Home Office. She succeeded
Victoria Atkins Victoria Mary Atkins (born 22 March 1976) is a British politician who has served as Financial Secretary to the Treasury since October 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, she was first elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Louth an ...
, who simultaneously became Minister of State for Prisons and Probation at the Ministry of Justice, both ministers adopting cross-Government responsibility for the Afghan resettlement programme and Operation Warm Welcome. In May 2022, during an interview on
Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...
, Maclean suggested some people struggling with rising prices could consider working more hours or getting a better-paid job. She later said her comments were unfairly taken out of context and the "long-term" idea would not work for all households. Maclean said she had received a "torrent of personal attacks" including a death threat. On 6 July 2022, Maclean resigned from her position as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding in protest at Prime Minister Boris Johnson's leadership. Maclean backed
Sajid Javid Sajid Javid (; born 5 December 1969) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from June 2021 to July 2022, having previously served as Home Secretary from 2018 to 2019 and Chancellor of the Exchequer f ...
, then
Kemi Badenoch Olukemi Olufunto Badenoch ( ; née Adegoke, 2 January 1980) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for International Trade, President of the Board of Trade and Minister for Women and Equalities since 2022. She previously served in ...
, and finally
Liz Truss Mary Elizabeth Truss (born 26 July 1975) is a British politician who briefly served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022. On her fiftieth day in office, she stepped down ...
in the
July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election The July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election was triggered by Boris Johnson's announcement on 7 July 2022 that he would resign as Leader of the Conservative Party after a series of political controversies. The leadership ele ...
.


Personal life

She married David Maclean in 1992. They have three sons and one daughter. She founded 'Skilled and Ready', a charity working with schools to help young people develop skills that businesses look for in their employees.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maclean, Rachel 1965 births Living people Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–present 21st-century British women politicians Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Alumni of St Hugh's College, Oxford 21st-century English women 21st-century English people