New Education Secretary Gillian Keegan (born Gillian Gibson) entered her first work place, an automotive parts factory, straight from school, aged 16.
With ten O levels from St Augustine of Canterbury Secondary School (in Huyton on Merseyside), she was the only female in that year’s intake and the only one to complete the employer-backed degree at Liverpool John Moores University.
At a young age she took against Derek Hatton’s militant council, and trade union politics of the day – claiming to have “always voted for the conservatives” because they seemed more likely to bring in business investment. She cites (to the Brighton Argus) her political heroes as Benjamin Disraeli (citing “upon the education of the people the fate of this country depends” alongside Margaret Thatcher.
