Amber Rudd Keynote Speaker

Amber Rudd is a keynote speaker who served as the Member of Parliament for Hastings and Rye until 2019.

Prior to becoming an MP, she studied History at Edinburgh University, and later worked in investment banking and venture capital. She has also worked in financial journalism and recruitment. As a backbencher, Amber campaigned on issues to do with women & equality. She set up a cross-party investigation into unwanted pregnancies leading to recommendation for better and compulsory sex education. She co-founded a new APPG against FGM.

In Government, Amber was appointed PPS to the Chancellor in September 2012, and in October 2013 she became a Government Whip. Amber was appointed as Minister for the Department of Energy and Climate Change in July 2014 and, in May 2015 became Secretary of State for the Department. In December 2015 she led the UK team to the successful completion of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

During the referendum campaign, she was a leading campaigner for the Remain side, representing the group in ITV’s televised debate in June 2016.

From July 2016 to April 2018 Amber served as Home Secretary. During 2017 Amber responded to the succession of terrorist attacks, calling for an international response to take radicalising material off the internet. She called for an internet response led by the major Internet Service Providers, and travelled to Silicon Valley to make the case for a more responsible role by internet companies. The formation of the Global Interest Forum for Counter Terrorism in 2017 addressed this call and has successfully reduced the amount of material online and set up a scheme to ensure smaller companies are also able to remove radicalising material.

She was re-elected as the MP for Hastings and Rye in June 2017. Amber has campaigned for better transport links, fairer deals for local fishermen, and has welcomed the increase in businesses and employment in her towns since 2010.

Amber has two grown-up children and enjoys visiting theatres and galleries, watching good TV series, catching up with friends in and around the constituency, and trying to fit in trips to the gym in her spare time.