Nicky Morgan

Nicola Ann Morgan, Baroness Morgan of Cotes, (Griffith; born 10 October 1972) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities from 2014 to 2016 and Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from 2019 to 2020.

She was the first woman to chair the Treasury Select Committee.

Morgan was born in Kingston upon Thames, south-west London on 10 October 1972.

She grew up in Surbiton and was privately educated at Surbiton High School.

Morgan joined the Conservative Party as a teenager in 1989.

She read jurisprudence at St Hugh's College, Oxford.

She twice stood unsuccessfully for president of the Oxford University Conservative Association, on the second occasion being defeated by Daniel Hannan, later a Conservative Member of the European Parliament.

She was also involved in the Oxford Union society.

She was elected treasurer, but failed in her bid for its presidency.

Morgan qualified as a solicitor in 1994 and worked as a corporate lawyer at Travers Smith specialising in mergers and acquisitions before taking on an in-house counsel role advising on corporate law matters.

She was the chair of Wessex Young Conservatives from 1995 to 1997 and vice-chair of Battersea Conservatives from 1997 to 1999.

Morgan unsuccessfully contested the Islington South and Finsbury constituency in the 2001 general election.

She was selected as the Conservative Party candidate for the Loughborough parliamentary seat in 2004 but was defeated by the Labour incumbent in the 2005 general election, although she achieved a 5% Labour to Conservative swing compared to a national average of 3.1%.

This made Loughborough the most marginal seat in the East Midlands.

Morgan was reselected for the Loughborough seat in 2006.

A member of the Conservative Party, she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Loughborough from 2010 to 2019.

Born in Kingston upon Thames, Morgan was raised in Surbiton.

After graduating from St Hugh's College, Oxford, she worked as a solicitor and corporate lawyer.

She was elected to the marginal seat of Loughborough at the 2010 general election.

In the 2010 general election, Morgan was elected as the MP for Loughborough on a swing of 5.5% with a majority of 3,744 votes.

She made her maiden speech in a debate on Economic Affairs and Work and Pensions on 8 June 2010.

In June 2010, she was selected as a Conservative member of the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee but was replaced following promotion in September to Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Universities and Science Minister, David Willetts.

In July 2010, Morgan asked the Prime Minister to join her in congratulating Loughborough University Student Union Rag Committee on raising more money on behalf of the Royal British Legion than any other rag in the country.

Both agreed it was an example of the Big Society in action.

On 7 November 2010, Morgan appeared on the Politics Show with Lucy Hopkins, Loughborough Students' Union President, to continue an earlier on-campus debate on the tripling of student tuition fees.

Morgan agreed costs could be daunting but said student numbers were unsustainable, it was fair to ask people to invest in their own education and people should ask more questions about how courses would improve prospects.

Hopkins accepted that the Government had tried to find fair options but said students were taking on "excessive debts" which they would still be paying off when their own children went to university, they had no guarantee of a better job and those from poor homes would either have to choose an affordable university or not attend.

In response, Morgan said that university was not a rite of passage, and that there were other ways of continuing education and she herself had taken eight years to pay off her debts.

In 2022 Morgan advocated that women members of the House of Lords should be able to pass on their titles to their spouses; existing rules extend this right to male peers only.

She served as Economic Secretary to the Treasury from October 2013 to April 2014 and as Financial Secretary to the Treasury from April to July 2014.

She was appointed as an assistant whip in September 2012 and as Economic Secretary to the Treasury on 7 October 2013.

In 2013, Morgan voted against the introduction of same-sex marriage in England and Wales, citing, among other reasons, her Christian belief that marriage could only be between a man and a woman.

Morgan first served in the Cabinet as Education Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities from 2014 until new Prime Minister Theresa May removed her from these positions in 2016.

Following the resignation of Maria Miller from the Cabinet, she became Minister for Women (attending Cabinet) on 9 April 2014 and was appointed a Privy Councillor.

However, the equalities brief went to Sajid Javid, the culture secretary.

The separation of the equalities portfolio was seen by some as a response to Morgan's vote against the government's proposal to introduce legislation allowing same-sex marriages.

In July 2017, she was elected chair of the Treasury Select Committee following the 2017 general election.

Morgan accepted the appointment by Boris Johnson of Culture Secretary in July 2019, even though she had stated in 2018 she would not serve in a Johnson government.

In October 2019, Morgan announced she would stand down as an MP at the 2019 general election but retained her cabinet post as part of the second Johnson ministry after being elevated to the House of Lords as a life peer.

She stood down from her ministerial position in Johnson's 2020 cabinet reshuffle.