Amber Rudd reinstated as Minister for Women and Equalities
Amber Rudd will resume her role as Women and Equalities Minister in Boris Johnson’s new cabinet (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
Amber Rudd has been announced as the new Minister for Women and Equalities, resuming a role she previously held in 2018.
She succeeds Penny Mordaunt, who held the post after Rudd stepped down in April 2018.
Rudd will also remain as Work and Pensions Secretary in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s newly-formed cabinet, it was announced on Wednesday (July 24).
At least ten of her former colleagues from Theresa May’s cabinet have been sacked in the reshuffle, which is thought to be the biggest cabinet clear-out in history without a change in party.
Rudd’s LGBT+ rights record
Rudd has been associated with socially-liberal policies and has worked for LGBT+ rights since she entered the House of Commons in 2010.
Her voting record shows she has consistently voted in favour of same-sex marriage between 2013 and 2014.
In 2018, while she was Home Secretary, she announced a major fund to held end anti-gay laws in Commonwealth countries.
Earlier this year she waded into the debate over LGBT-inclusive education in schools, condemning Esther McVey for saying “parents know best” on whether or not to teach LGBT-issues.
Rudd said that the Conservative party “could not pick and choose when it came to supporting equality.”
Impact on the Gender Recognition Act
Before Penny Mordaunt resigned from the cabinet, she and her department were working on issuing a government response to the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) consultation.
Speaking at the PinkNews summer reception on July 4, she said that the results of the consultation would be “out the door in the next few weeks.”
She told PinkNews: “We’re working to get it out the door as soon as possible. I’m sorry it’s taken so long, but we needed to do a proper job on it.”
The Gender Recognition Act reform plans will be “out the door in the next few weeks,” @PennyMordaunt tells PinkNews. Read more: https://t.co/wRHTKeGW1M #PinkNewsWestminster pic.twitter.com/BWMfGUdlLa
— PinkNews (@PinkNews) July 4, 2019
But a date for the announcement has still not been set, and it’s unclear whether a change in Minister for Women and Equalities will delay this further.
