Ruth Kelly was appointed Secretary of State for Transport in June 2007.

Prior to this, she was made the first Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) in May 2006. Previously, she had been Secretary of State for Education and Skills since December 2004 and, before that, Minister for the Cabinet Office. Ms Kelly has also worked as Economic Secretary and Financial Secretary at HM Treasury.

She was educated at Queen's College, Oxford, and the London School of Economics, where she gained an MSc in Economics. She worked on The Guardian as an economics writer in the early 1990s before joining the Bank of England.

Ruth was elected to Parliament as Member for Bolton in the 1997 General Election and the following year became Parliamentary Private Secretary to Nick Brown at the Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

Ruth Kelly is married with three daughters and a son.