Therese Coffey: Karaoke-loving Truss ally tasked with sorting out NHS

It's 08:00 in the morning and the second most powerful woman in Westminster is giving one of her first interviews in her new role at the apex of government.

As she's grilled about her new job, she suddenly seems distracted as she grabs for her mobile phone.

"I've just realised my alarm is going off on my phone," says Therese Coffey, live on LBC Radio. "You're getting a bit of Dr Dre."

The unmistakable staccato opening keys of Dr Dre's 1999 hit Still D.R.E. ring out as Ms Coffey chuckles and admits "it's just an eight o'clock alarm". She regains her composure and the interview continues.

Meet the new health secretary and deputy prime minister - a music and football-loving Tory MP with a reputation for partying as hard as she works.

A long-time ally of new Prime Minister Liz Truss, Ms Coffey has been given one of the most challenging briefs in government: fixing the multiple crises afflicting the NHS.

In her first speech as prime minister, Ms Truss said putting "our health service on a firm footing" was one of her three early priorities.

The fact Ms Truss has appointed one of her strongest supporters to that role indicates how seriously the prime minister is taking this particular priority.

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• Can Coffey deliver her NHS A, B, C and D?

With 6.6 million people in queues for treatment, NHS backlogs - as well growing ambulance waiting times and staff vacancies - will be at the top of her to-do list.

Her plan to sort it out? "My focus is on A, B, C, D," Ms Coffey told the BBC. "That stands for ambulances, backlogs, care and doctors and dentists."

Focusing on social care and freeing up space in hospitals "is going to be critical", she said.

Given her cabinet experience as work and pensions secretary, Ms Coffey will believe she's up to the task entrusted to her by Ms Truss.

Political allies

Close friends since they were elected as Tory MPs in 2010, Ms Truss and Ms Coffey have risen through the political ranks together.

Their friendship has proved fruitful for their political careers.

Both attended Oxford University, with Ms Coffey studying chemistry (as former Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher did) and cutting her political teeth in the Oxford Union debating society.

Ms Coffey was born in 1971 in Lancashire and educated in Liverpool. She has attributed her Conservative political persuasions to her experiences of growing up in the city during the 1970s and 80s.

Speaking to the BBC's Political Thinking podcast in 2020, Ms Coffey criticised the Labour Militant council of the 1980s and said the rest of the country "seemed to be getting on rather well" under the prime minister at the time, Mrs Thatcher.

At the start of her professional life, Ms Coffey worked in several roles for confectionary giant Mars and as a finance manager at the BBC.

Elected for the safe Tory seat of Suffolk Coastal, her parliamentary career began in 2010. Since then, she has served in the governments of Theresa May, Boris Johnson and now Ms Truss.

Before becoming deputy PM, her most prominent role was secretary of state at the Department for Work and Pensions, a post she held from September 2019 until this week.

Rashford row

In that role her mettle was tested in September last year, when she defended the scrapping of a £20 weekly uplift to Universal Credit payments introduced during the pandemic.

In remarks criticised as out of touch, Ms Coffey said benefits recipients could make the money back by working two extra hours a week.

When she was linked with a senior role in Ms Truss's government, Ms Coffey and her voting record on certain issues came under renewed scrutiny.

A practising Catholic, Ms Coffey has previously voted against extending abortion care, saying earlier this year she would "prefer that people didn't have abortions but I am not going to condemn people that do".

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service has called the new health secretary's record on abortion rights "deeply concerning". But Ms Coffey told the BBC abortion access already available in England and Wales will continue while she was in post.

Similarly controversial was her row with Manchester United star Marcus Rashford last year, after he forced the government to extend its free school meal voucher scheme.

On his campaign, Rashford tweeted: "When you wake up this morning and run your shower, take a second to think about parents who have had their water turned off during lockdown."

In reply, Ms Coffey posted on Twitter: "Water cannot be disconnected though."

Expressing concern at her response, Rashford urged MPs to "put rivalries aside" and help struggling households.

Unconventional politician

Yet Ms Coffey has insisted she doesn't pay much attention to social media. When asked about social media posts circulating about her, the health secretary said: "I don't tend to look at social media."

Such comments, she said, do not worry her.

Ms Coffey seems comfortable with the unconventional political persona she has cultivated.

In Westminster, her karaoke nights are the stuff of legend, with Ms Truss known to be a regular attendee in the past.

Ms Coffey's enthusiasm for karaoke was on full display at the Tory conference in October last year, when she was filmed belting out a version of (I've Had) The Time Of My Life and other pop anthems.

Football - namely Liverpool FC - is another of her passions. She is a regular at Anfield - Liverpool FC's stadium - and even followed the team to Paris to watch their defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League final earlier this year.

She was also pictured alongside Ms Truss at Wembley, where they cheered on England's Lionesses in their Women's Euro 2022 victory against Germany.

Ms Truss and Ms Coffey were at Wembley to watch the Euro 2022 final

Other pictures of Ms Coffey have been less flattering. One, taken at a Spectator magazine party in 2015, showed her toking a large cigar and swilling a glass of champagne.

But despite the occasional gaffe, Ms Coffey has been described in glowing terms by her colleagues.

Nadine Dorries, the former culture secretary, has said "nothing ever goes wrong" in a department led by Ms Coffey, and friends in Westminster cite the new deputy PM's tireless work ethic.

Unmarried with no children, Ms Coffey is a private person. She's never been shy about showing her loyalty to Ms Truss though.

Her tweet marking Ms Truss's elevation to prime minister was a case in point.

"Brilliant news that @trussliz is now our prime minister," Ms Coffey wrote.

It was a retweet of a post shared by Ms Coffey almost exactly 10 years ago to celebrate the promotion of a friend to a junior ministerial role. The friend was Liz Truss.