Grassroots darling who challenged May for the leadership
TORY grassroots favourite Andrea Leadsom was one of the main faces of the Brexit campaign.
She then stood against Theresa May for the party leadership last year, but was forced to withdraw following a series of gaffes.
Mrs Leadsom, 54, who has three children, pulled out after making controversial comments about how she was better qualified to be prime minister because she was a mother and Mrs May was not.
Mrs May made her environment secretary, but demoted her to Leader of the House and replaced by Michael Gove following the general election in June.
Later that month, she angered the Prime Minister’s inner circle after appearing in front of the cameras after the Grenfell Tower blaze without clearing it with No 10.
She was not invited to appear as a main speaker at this year’s Tory party conference in Manchester.
During her Conservative leadership campaign, there were also questions about her CV after it emerged that a number of the claims she had made were not accurate.
Mrs Leadsom was brought up in Tring, Hertfordshire, by a divorced mother in a terraced house with an outside toilet.
The MP, who is married with two sons and a daughter, read political science at Warwick University.
Before entering politics, she enjoyed a 25-year career on the trading floors of the City of London and as a Barclays investment banker. She also founded a charity to strengthen the bonds between parents and children in their early years, arguing that this could help to prevent anti-social behaviour.
Mrs Leadsom entered Parliament in 2010 as the MP for South Northamptonshire, realising an ambition she developed at the age of 13. She said she ‘longed’ to be prime minister after becoming one of the most prominent Brexit campaigners and performing well in television debates.
The then junior energy and climate change minister traded verbal blows with her Remain-backing boss Amber Rudd in one debate.