Thérèse Anne Coffey, Baroness Coffey (born 18 November 1971) is a British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from September to October 2022 under Liz Truss.
A member of the Conservative Party, she was the first female deputy prime minister in British history. Coffey served as Environment Secretary, Health Secretary, and Work and Pensions Secretary while serving as the member of Parliament (MP) for Suffolk Coastal from 2010 to 2024. Since 2025, she has been a Member of the House of Lords as a life peer.
Coffey served under Prime Minister Theresa May as a parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2016 to 2019, before serving under Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a minister of state at the same department from July to September 2019. In September 2019, after Amber Rudd resigned from Johnson's cabinet, Coffey was appointed as secretary of state for work and pensions.
After Johnson resigned in 2022, Coffey supported Liz Truss's bid to become Conservative leader. Following Truss's appointment as prime minister in September 2022, Coffey was appointed deputy prime minister and secretary of state for health and social care. After Truss resigned in October 2022, Coffey was appointed by Rishi Sunak as secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs. After resigning in November 2023, Coffey lost her seat in Parliament at the 2024 general election but was appointed to the House of Lords later that year.
Thérèse Coffey was born on 18 November 1971 in Billinge Hospital in Wigan, Lancashire, to Tom Coffey and Alice George and grew up in Liverpool. She went to St Mary's College, Crosby, and St Edward's College, Liverpool. Coffey then briefly attended the University of Oxford as an undergraduate student of Somerville College, Oxford in 1989 to study chemistry. However, in 1991 she was asked to withdraw having obtained poor college examination results twice allegedly due to spending too much time on extracurricular activities including rowing and politics.
Coffey then attended University College London, where she obtained a Bachelor of Science degree (with upper second class honours) in chemistry in 1993 and later a PhD in chemistry in 1998.
After graduating Coffey worked in a number of roles for Mars Incorporated, including as finance director for Mars Drinks UK. She then worked for the BBC as a property finance manager.
In the European Parliament elections in June 2004, Coffey stood for election to the European Parliament for South East England. The Conservative Party won 35.2% of the vote, giving it four seats, but Coffey was seventh on the list in this proportional representation system, and was not elected.
Coffey stood as the Conservative Party candidate for Wrexham at the 2005 general election, coming third with 20% of the vote.
At the 2009 European Parliament elections, Coffey missed out by one place on being elected to the European Parliament for South East England. The Conservative Party won 34.79% of the vote, giving it four seats, and placing her fifth on the party list.
At the 2010 general election, Coffey was elected as MP for Suffolk Coastal with 46.4% of the vote and a majority of 9,128. She is a supporter of the Free Enterprise Group.
On 6 July 2011, Coffey defended Rebekah Brooks over the News of the World's involvement in the news media phone hacking scandal. She said a "witch hunt" was developing against Brooks, and that simply to say Brooks was editor of the newspaper at the time was not enough evidence against her. Coffey became a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee inquiry into the hacking scandal in 2012. In that committee, she declined to support any motions critical of Rupert and James Murdoch. However, she later joined the majority of her party in voting for exemplary damages to be a default consequence to deter press misbehaviour.
After serving as a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee from July 2010 to October 2012, Coffey was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Michael Fallon, Minister for Business and Energy.
Coffey faced criticism in 2011 from some Suffolk residents over her support for the government's proposal to sell off forestry and woodland in public ownership. Protesters argued that "experience shows us that when private landowners come in they close car parks and make access as difficult as possible". The government later dropped the proposal in January 2013.
Coffey's decision to write a paper for the Free Enterprise Group recommending pensioners should pay National Insurance contributions on earnings provoked criticism among some older constituents, who claimed that in an already tough economic environment, it was wrong to tax pensioners further. Coffey said that she had "no regrets writing about National Insurance" and that it was "a policy proposal – it is by no means, at this stage, anymore than that".
In February 2013, Coffey voted against the legalisation of same-sex marriage, stating: "I shall be voting against the Bill because my perspective on what marriage is really about is different from that of some other Members... for me it is fundamentally still about family, the bedrock of society." She again voted against same-sex marriage in 2019 when Parliament considered the same question for Northern Ireland.
In July 2014, she was appointed an assistant government whip.
At the 2015 general election, Coffey was re-elected as MP for Suffolk Coastal with an increased vote share of 51.9% and an increased majority of 18,842. After the election, she was appointed Deputy Leader of the House of Commons on 11 May 2015.