Ruth Kelly: 'I've enjoyed debating our proposals. It reminds me of why I came into politics'

The Monday Interview: Secretary of State for Education

Ruth Kelly is almost beatifically good-natured. She hasn't a bad word to say about anyone. Take that incident, a week ago, when she ended up with an egg in her hair. She set out at 8am, to give evidence in the case of a Fathers4Justice demonstrator accused of threatening her. On arrival at Salford magistrates' court, she learnt that her evidence was not needed. As she left, another demonstrator from the same group smashed an egg over her skull. That was one ruined hairdo, and by the time she was back in her office, she had already lost what most people would think of as an entire working day. Very irritating, I suggest. But she shrugged it off : "It was just one of those things that happen."

But surely as a cabinet minister grappling with one of the most difficult pieces of legislation on the Government's books, and a mother of four children, she must have been furious to have a day stolen out of her life. "Oh no, it was a good thing I went, because he pleaded guilty. If I hadn't been there, he would have pleaded not guilty," she replied cheerfully.

Perhaps the Education Secretary is the sort of person who goes home and throws objects at the television, but at work, she radiates an amiable calm, something she has needed for the past five months, as she has battled with the powerful opposition roused by Tony Blair's proposed education reforms.

At its nadir, this controversy was going so badly for the Government that even John Prescott was out in semi-open opposition. Others, who have been loyal Blairites for 10 years, including the former party leader Neil Kinnock and the Prime Minister's former press secretary Alastair Campbell, were at a packed protest meeting in the House of Commons. There were regular reports that Ms Kelly was on the verge of being sacked, and even that the PM's job was at stake.

It began with some briefings which did not come from Ms Kelly's department, suggesting that the reforms were designed to rescue secondary schools from the dead hand of local councillors, and to set them free to choose their own pupils according to their own "ethos". To many people, this sounded as if the Government wanted to create a system in which independently run "Trust" schools would compete for pupils, recreating the old divide between grammar and secondary-modern schools under a new guise. The Labour Party has a lot of councillors and a lot of people from the world of education. If the Church of England was once "the Tory party at prayer", so the Labour Party sometimes resembles the political wing of the comprehensive school movement. It was Downing Street which stirred up this formidable army, and it has been Ruth Kelly, appointed Education Secretary last May at the age of only 37, who has had to calm it down. She must surely have felt the occasional flash of irritation, if not with Downing Street for throwing her into this maelstrom, then with the rebels who were stirring so much trouble. Oh no, she said, not at all.

"Education is very special in the Labour Party. Lots of Labour MPs became involved in politics for the first time because they cared passionately about education. If there is any way of translating Labour values into action, it is through education. So it does arouse very strong feelings, and people want to be convinced that we've got our proposals right and that we're going to be fair as well as produce excellence.

"I find it quite encouraging. I've spoken to so many people over the past two months. I enjoy going out and talking to them, because they do care passionately about these issues, and it reminds me of why I came into politics."

It has been suggested that her job has been made more difficult by her family circumstances, and by her very rapid rise through government ranks. She had her first child only weeks after being elected to the Commons in 1997, and has had three more since. She was given her first government post, as an unpaid parliamentary private secretary, after only a year as an MP. This has left her with precious little time to network in the bars and tea-rooms of the Commons, building a political base to support her in stormy times. But she makes light of that problem. "I have spent months talking to colleagues ... about things they care passionately about, that's the best way of getting to know them," she said. For a Cabinet minister running a key department, there is no such thing as normal hours. Even when she finally arrives home, the ministerial red boxes go with her. So how does she cope? "I've got a secret weapon - my husband. I've got a fantastic family, really good kids."

Not a word of complaint about how politics is stacked against women, particularly those with young children - nor about colleagues and journalists who have been forecasting her demise since the problem of sex offenders working in schools blew up on her watch. But she is not fazed by being a mother and an MP: "It's a huge privilege to be education Secretary. I love the job. I'm enjoying it tremendously. The rest is up to the Prime Minister."

Will a really nosy question fluster her? Was she, as Westminster rumour has it, pregnant again? The immediate response was a disapproving snort. Then she leant forward and said directly into the tape recorder: "It's none of your business." But she is not pregnant.

Last week, she defused some of the opposition to the Education Bill, but only after conceding an important change. Her White Paper, published in December, had laid down that all new schools would be "trust" schools, owning their own assets and employing their own staff. Now she has agreed that where a new school is needed and parents trust the local council, it can bid to run the school against trusts or charities that might be interested to open an old-style, council-run comprehensive.

"People said, 'look, if you're really serious about raising standards and giving people choice, why is it that if people want a community school, they don't have that chance to choose a community school?' I thought that was a pretty fair argument. If people want a local school that is not only set up by the local authority, but where the local authority also owns the assets and employs the staff. In certain situations that might be a very sensible thing to do."

But she has not given in on the principle that popular schools must be allowed to expand at the expense of the less popular ones: "I think that schools that are doing extremely well and are popular among parents should have the opportunity to create more good school places," she insisted. "One way to do that is by federating with another school. And that's why trusts are so important."

She hopes the package is enough to extricate the Government and the Prime Minister from the excruciating prospect of having to rely on the Conservatives to get the legislation through the Commons. Some senior councillors at Labour's spring conference at the weekend were saying she had done enough to keep them on side. "Of course, she can't go around crowing that she has got the Prime Minister to change his mind, but that is what she has done," one influential councillor said.

Ruth Kelly seems to think that she is out of the woods now. "I think we have got a really strong set of proposals that take the White Paper forward, that will allow the essence of the freedom of the trust schools, but also provide the reassurance people have sought," she said.

Others do not agree. They accuse the sunny-tempered Education Secretary of underestimating the forces lined up against her. When the main vote on the Education Bill comes in March, we will know who was right. And on that vote may hinge a decision on whether Ruth Kelly can keep the job she loves so much.

The CV

* BORN 9 May 1968

* FAMILY Married with son and three daughters

* EDUCATION Westminster School; Queen's College, Oxford; London School of Economics

* CAREER 1990-94: economics writer, The Guardian; 1994-96: deputy head, inflation report division, Bank of England; 1997: manager, special projects division, Bank of England; 1997-: Labour MP for Bolton West; 1998-2001: PPS to Minister of Agriculture; 2001-02: Economic Secretary to the Treasury; 2002-04: Financial Secretary to the Treasury; Dec 2004: Secretary of State for Education and Skills