Catherine PEPINSTER
Being a Catholic in politics was tough, Ruth Kelly tells Catherine Pepinster, as she prepares to join the Vatican
What will Ruth Kelly be like, I wonder, as I wait to meet her. When she first came to prominence in 1997 as a “Blair babe” – elected as an MP in Labour’s landslide election – she wore her hair in a boyish crop, as if she meant business.
Then, after leaving Parliament in 2010, she sported glamorous blonde waves. Today, as she prepares to take on a post at the Vatican, advising the Pope and his officials on finance, she has straight shoulder-length locks. It’s as if she’s ready for the papal corridors of power, with a style expressing calm and efficiency.
It’s not just looks that change with Kelly. Not for her one successful career, but many, including national newspaper journalism and a meteoric rise in politics, becoming the youngest ever Cabinet minister when she was made education secretary at just 36. After 13 years in Westminster, she quit and landed a top job at HSBC. Then it was five years at St Mary’s University, London, as pro vice-chancellor.
“I’ve never been afraid of taking a risk because, as a child, we moved around all the time and I had to get used to new situations,” she explains. “I’d say I’m stable because of my family, and I am rooted in my faith.”
As we talk, it becomes clear that if you really want to know Kelly, her Roman Catholicism is the key. In the past she’s avoided talking about her religion and family, determined to guard her privacy. One reason why she’s always been so reticent is she senses an antipathy in Britain. “There is a deep, embedded hostility to religion in this country,” she says. She believes that “Catholics get it in the neck more than others” and are an easy target for those who want religion kept out of politics.
We meet just as Joe Biden, another Roman Catholic, gives his speech accepting the Democratic nomination for the US presidency. The address, on Thursday, was peppered with allusions to religious belief. “Everyone should be given the opportunity to go as far as their dreams and God-given ability will take them,” he intoned. “As God’s children, each of us have a purpose in our lives.”
They are not words you would hear uttered by a UK politician. Yet the religious leanings of those in public life does tend to fascinate us.
One controversial newspaper story, when Kelly was in the Commons, suggested that she had moved to a smart part of Hammersmith, west London, so that she could get her children into top Catholic state schools. And indeed, they did go to some of the very best.
Now, three of the four have finished their education, and Kelly, 52, and her husband, Derek Gadd, have moved across the Thames. We meet near her new home, at her plush Teddington members’ club, where – after lockdown with all four children back home – she is relieved to escape for a swim.
She remains reticent about her family, except to say that coping with four children under 11 while a senior Cabinet member was far less difficult than being a mother to young adults. “Little people have little problems,” she says. “It’s much harder later on.”
Her Vatican post – she is joining the Council for the Economy, a regulatory body set up by Pope Francis to focus on the Catholic Church’s finances – seems to have freed her to talk about her faith after years of declining to do so. In 2006, when she was education secretary, the movie of Dan Brown’s blockbuster novel, The Da Vinci Code, was released, in which Opus Dei members attempt to prevent Tom Hanks discovering Vatican secrets.
There was speculation that Kelly was an Opus member, but she always declined to say so. Tony Blair, though, must have known because she recalls that when the film came out, “Tony used to joke, ‘Are you going to slip poison in my tea?’” Today, she is at last happy to acknowledge her membership.
“My faith goes to the core of me. Being a member of Opus gives me inspiration and support in combining my daily activities with my personal relationship with God – and I find that invaluable,” she says.
Kelly was introduced to Opus Dei by university friends from Oxford and her brother, Ronan, also a member. The organisation (Opus Dei is Latin for “work of God”) was founded in 1928 in Spain and now has around 99,000 members. It emphasises that lay people can develop their spirituality and encourages daily prayer.
In the past, it was highly secretive about its membership and was believed to wield power in the Vatican. It was also said to advocate mortification, including self-flagellation – much hammed up by Brown. Kelly says that, for her, whips have nothing to do with it.
“I knew I wanted a deep personal relationship with God and commitment, and with Opus Dei you don’t need to be called away from work and having a family”.
Why didn’t she say all this when in government? “I was a bit defensive. I was overly influenced by the ‘We don’t do God’ mantra” – something largely attributed to Alastair Campbell, who tried to deflect attention from Blair’s own Christianity.
Being a Catholic and a politician proved a tough balancing act and eventually ended Kelly’s political career. The last straw was then prime minister Gordon Brown’s 2008 Bill permitting embryo experimentation.
When she voted against it, she knew she had to quit. “I’d never intended to grow old in the Westminster village. I took the view that compromise is essential, but you should have red lines. That was my red line,” says Kelly.
Other issues would also have tested her, had she stayed. In 2013, Parliament legislated for same-sex marriage, and Kelly says she would have found that difficult. “It is not necessarily the right thing for the state to enable gay marriage,” she argues.
She left the Labour Party two years ago, alienated by Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, but finds Sir Keir Starmer a more appealing figure. For her, she seems to think, success came too young: “Education is the best political job in the world, but it was my first. As education secretary I was in at the deep end, with huge exposure.”
It’s something incumbent Gavin Williamson has no doubt discovered in the last week or two, given the scrutiny he’s been under following the A-level results shambles.
“It’s very surprising that it wasn’t obvious that this fiasco was going to happen,” she says.
That role, and Kelly’s five years as a university executive, convinced her that A-level exams are the gold standard. She also takes issue with Williamson’s pledge to scrap Blair’s target of sending half of young people to university.
“At graduation ceremonies, students talk about how the experience has transformed their lives. I deplore those who think they shouldn’t be given the chance,” she says.
Kelly’s big chance in the Catholic Church came out of the blue, with a phone call only a day after she had told St Mary’s that she was stepping down to pursue a portfolio career.
Taking on her new Vatican role will make her one of Opus Dei’s most influential members. But what really excites Kelly is that the Vatican body, which she joins on September 17, is made up of eight bishops and seven lay financial experts – six of whom are female.
“It’s a commitment at the highest level to women,” she adds.
But when I ask her about the Catholic Church’s ban on female priests, she laughs awkwardly. “These are gifts rather than rights. There’s a gap in the governing of the Church, but in the ordained ministry I don’t think it’s where it’s at.”
It’s a glimpse of the old Kelly, uncomfortable on religious issues. She swiftly changes tack to the Vatican’s finances which, after decades of mismanagement, have been put under scrutiny.
“Like every other state, the Vatican is facing a serious financial issue and looming deficits must be addressed. The process of reform is challenging,” she continues.
And why might that be? “Because it has no history of transparency or accountability, so I hope the council will promote that.”
You can sense how much Kelly wants that transparency.
And in talking publicly about her own faith, after years of avoiding it, she’s trying hard to at last be transparent herself.
‘I was overly influenced by the “We don’t do God” mantra’