Helen Whately

Helen Olivia Bicknell Whately (née Lightwood; born 23 June 1976) is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Faversham and Mid Kent since 2015 and Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions since November 2024. She was Shadow Secretary of State for Transport from July to November 2024 and Minister of State for Social Care from October 2022 to July 2024, as too previously from 2020 to 2021. She also served as Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury from 2021 to 2022. Whately was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party by Theresa May in 2019, and was retained in the post by new prime minister Boris Johnson. She served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Arts, Heritage and Tourism from September 2019 to February 2020. In the 2020 Cabinet reshuffle, Johnson moved her to the post of Minister of State for Social Care. Whately was the Social Care Minister during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. In the 2021 Cabinet reshuffle, Johnson moved her to the post of Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, serving under Chancellor Rishi Sunak. In July 2022, she resigned from office in protest at Johnson's leadership amid a Government crisis. She sat on the backbenches during Liz Truss's tenure as prime minister, before returning to her former role of Social Care Minister in October 2022 under Sunak until the Conservative's defeat in the 2024 general election. After being appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Transport in Sunak's caretaker shadow cabinet, she was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions by Kemi Badenoch after her election as Leader of the Conservative Party.