AFTER seven months on the backbenches, Amber Rudd has made a dramatic return to the Cabinet frontline as Work and Pensions Secretary with the task of overseeing the roll-out of the UK Government’s flagship but highly controversial Universal Credit programme.
Labour’s Diane Abbott was quick to criticise the appointment of the former Home Secretary so soon after the Windrush scandal, which resulted in the Hastings MP losing her previous job.
"Amber Rudd resigned because of her mismanagement of #Windrush scandal. Now Theresa May puts her in the DWP,” tweeted the Shadow Home Secretary, adding: “Let's hope she shows more concern for the victims of this department's unfairness and cruelty than she did at the Home Office. #UniversalCredit"
But following her resignation, Ms Rudd, 55, a mother-of-two, had never disabused people of the idea that she wanted a return to Cabinet, noting, when asked, that she did “not lack ambition”.
On her new appointment, she tweeted: "A great honour. Look forward to getting stuck in." Ms Rudd immediately urged colleagues who were mulling over sending in letters to call for a confidence vote in the Prime Minister to “think again” and urged them to “pull together” behind their leader.
London-born, Ms Rudd is the daughter of a stockbroker and a magistrate. Educated privately at Cheltenham Ladies College, she went on to study history at Edinburgh University before beginning work for the investment bank JP Morgan.
She was elected in 2010 and rose quickly through the ranks, joining the Cabinet in 2015 as Energy Secretary under David Cameron and being promoted to Home Secretary in 2016 by Mrs May, her predecessor in the department.
Having now replaced Esther McVey, a leading Brexiteer at the Department for Work and Pensions, the appointment of Ms Rudd, who opposed Brexit in 2016, means that most of the top Cabinet roles are now held by Remainers.
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