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See other news storiesJacqui Smith is the new home secretary
28 June 2007
Prime Minister Gordon Brown today announced the appointment of the country's first female Home Secretary.
On his first full day in office the new Prime Minister chose former chief whip Jacqui Smith to lead th
e Home Office, making her the UK's first woman Home Secretary.
Mrs Smith, 45, is the MP for Redditch, Inkberrow, Feckenham and Cookhill, and had been chief whip for just over a year.
Background in education and economics
A graduate of Hertford College, Oxford, and a teacher, Mrs Smith was head of economics at Haybridge High School in Hagley before her election to Parliament in 1997.
When she was first promoted to government in 1999 she was one of the youngest ministers, and served for two years as parliamentary under secretary of state at the Department for Education.
Later she served as minister of state for health with responsibility for social services, then minister of state at the Department for Trade and Industry and deputy minister for women. After the 2005 general election she became minister of state for schools.
She'd been chief whip since May 2006 before taking up her post as Home Secretary today.
