Health
Therese Coffey: Cheerful pragmatist inherits health services in crisis | Therese Coffey
T.Jerez Kofi is MP who loves beer, music and football Its lively karaoke parties are a legend in Westminster. One of her regulars is her best friend, Liz Her Truss, who has appointed a Suffolk Coast MP as the new Secretary of Health and Social Services. It’s her third in just two months.
She’s notoriously obsessed with her job, even by parliament’s usual standards. health and Social Care (DHSC) workers have to prepare for a very demanding new boss. Despite her reputation as a tough taskmaster, she is very popular with her colleagues. “She’s a bubbly, good-natured fellow, and she likes to drink,” she says.
Coffey, 50, was born in Lancashire and raised in Liverpool, briefly attending Oxford University before completing his PhD in Chemistry at University College London. She qualified as a Chartered Accountant, worked for Mars and her BBC subsidiary, and could not become a Member of Parliament and Member of Parliament. She became her MP for Suffolk Coastal in her 2010 election. She is private, unmarried, childless, and on good terms with her mother and sister.
One colleague said, “Her political views are about the free market and hard right wing, including strong views against abortion.” But Conservative insiders disagree. “Her political worldview is very down-to-earth,” they say. Her friends say her Catholicism is also an important influence.