Whittingdale out, Bradley in at DCMS
July 14, 2016
By Colin Mann
John Whittingdale has left his post as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport under the rearrangment of the UK Government’s Cabinet portfolios under new Prime Minister Theresa May. He has been replaced by Karen Bradley, who was previously Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Home Office under May having been appointed in February 2014. She was elected Conservative MP for Staffordshire Moorlands in May 2010.
Whittingdale took over the portfolio after the general election in 2015 from Sajid Javid, having previously served as Chairman of the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee.
In a tweet he said: “Has been a privilege to serve as Culture Secretary. I wish my successor every success & will continue to support creative industries”
Bradley was a member of the Select Committee on Work and Pensions and of the Procedure Committee until she was appointed to the Government Whips’ Office in September 2012.
She is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Adviser and worked in public practice from 1991 to 2004, first for Deloitte & Touche and then for KPMG. In 2004, she became a self-employed fiscal and economic consultant. She rejoined KPMG in 2007, where she remained until shortly before her election to the House of Commons.
She worked in the Conservative Policy Unit before the 2005 General Election helping to develop economic and fiscal policies, particularly those aimed at removing unnecessary regulation and red tape. She has contributed to several reports for think tanks helping to develop social and fiscal policy including Iain Duncan Smith’s key report on Breakthrough Britain for the Centre for Social Justice. She is the co-author of Little Britons: Financing Childcare Choice for Policy Exchange, and of Turbo-Charging Growth for the Centre for Policy Studies.
Shortly after she entered the House of Commons she was elected to the Select Committee on Work and Pensions and later to the Procedure Select Committee. She relinquished both these positions when she was appointed as a Minister in the Government Whips office in October 2012. At the Home Office she brought in the Serious Crime Act to help protect people in the UK from organised crime and just before Parliament was dissolved in March 2015, she secured the passing of the Modern Slavery Act.