Helen Whately

Helen Whately was first elected as the MP for Faversham and Mid-Kent in 2015. She is currently the minister of state at the department of health and social care. Born in Norwich, Whately studied PPE at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford before becoming a trainee at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She then joined AOL Time Warner, where she helped set up the company’s internet film service and later worked as an engagement manager in the healthcare division of McKinsey Company. Whately was first inspired to pursue a political career while working as a media policy advisor to the then shadow culture secretary Hugo Swire. After an unsuccessful attempt to enter parliament at the 2010 general election, losing out to the Liberal Democrats’ Ed Davey in Kingston and Surbiton, Whately was successfully elected as the MP for Faversham and Mid Kent in 2015, holding the seat for the party with a majority of 16,652. In her maiden speech, Whately warned fellow parliamentarians about the need to stop treating the NHS “as a political football”. She served on the Health and Social Care Committee between 2015 and 2017 and in 2016 she was made parliamentary private secretary to Greg Hands, the then international trade minister. In 2018 she was appointed as a vice-chair of the Conservative Party and the following year was promoted to become deputy chair. In September 2019 she joined the government as parliamentary under-secretary at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, then in December 2019 increased her constituency majority to 21,976. She was appointed as minister of state at the department of health and social care in February 2020.