London (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Karen Anne Bradley is a British Conservative Party politician. From 2018 to 2019 she served as the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Moreover, she has served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Staffordshire Moorlands. If this isn’t enough she was appointed to the Cameron Government in 2014. She got the chance to get appointed to the Cabinet as a Secretary of state for culture, media, and sports. Therefore she stayed there until getting her next appointment as the Northern Ireland Secretary.
Early Life & Bio
Karen Anne Bradley was born on 12 March 1970 in Newcastle. Her family moved to Buxton, Derbyshire when she was young. She completed her education at the local comprehensive and Imperial College London. Here she got her degree in BSC mathematics. In 1991, she got the chance to join Deloitte & Touche. Soon after she started working as a tax manager.
After working in this position for seven years she became financially secure. Later she got appointed as the senior tax manager with KPMG. In 2014, she wanted to set up her business as a fiscal and economic consultant. However, she later rejoined KPMG in 2007. She remained there until the election to the House of Commons.
Parliamentary Career
Karen contested the Manchester general election in 2005. However, she remained unsuccessful and got the third position. She lost her position to the Liberal Democrats John Leech. Bradley has been a member of the Conservative Party’s A-List. In 2006 she was selected for the Staffordshire Moorlands. Moreover, she got selected as the Member of Parliament during the 2010 general elections.
The best thing is that Karen got the opportunity to welcome the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. When the couple embarked on their first journey to Northern Ireland she welcomed them. Following another election in 2010, Karen became a member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee. In May 2012, she got elected as the co-secretary of the backbench Committee.
Appointment as the Junior Government Whip
In September 2012, Karen was appointed as the junior Government whip. After that, she joined the Administration Committee as a member. Karen joined the Home office as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State. She needed to prevent abuse, exploitation, and crime in many ways. In 2016, she was appointed to another important position of Secretary of State.
This position of secretary was important for Culture, Media, and Sport. However later in November she denied getting appointed to this position. This position was strong as it was of a non-executive director on the board for Channel 4.
All this led to a lot of criticism as Efunshile was one of the black female candidates. While all the other four candidates were white. Most of them were either appointed or reappointed. As she supported white candidates this became a subject of criticism. The complaint was sent to her by a cross-party group of MPs. In the next appointment, Government announced new changes for the selection.
Political Ideas
In 2019, Karen defended killings that were commonly happening due to security forces. Due to these happening, she gave the following statement: “The fewer than 10% [of killings] that were at the hands of the military and police were not crimes, they were people acting under orders and fulfilling their duties in a dignified and appropriate way.”
However, this statement once again turned out to be controversial. Everyone asked for clarification on her remarks. Another important issue was raised against her in the House of Commons. Following these issues, she issued an apology. All the MPs including her had to decide how to stop these killings. Interestingly Karen was dismissed from her position as soon as Boris Johnson became the Prime Minister.
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Personal Life & Net Worth
Karen Bradley is married to Neil Bradley. The couple is blessed with two sons. Many people didn’t know that Karen is a big fan of Manchester City Football Club. Her total net worth is estimated to be $5 million. Although politics is her major source of income, she earned a good amount while working for some famous companies.
After getting dismissed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, she was re-elected at the 2019 general elections. This time she got an increased majority of 16,428 votes. If this isn’t enough she got elected as the Chair of the Procedure Committee. In these elections, she defeated Bob Blackman for the post by a big margin. As Karen is one of the most influential politicians she likes to lead a luxurious life.