Keegan started her career aged 16 as an apprentice at a car factory in Kirkby and went on to have a business career working at Delco Electronics, NatWest Bank, MasterCard International, Amadeus IT Group and Travelport over 27 years.
Political career
Keegan says that it was her experiences of trade unionism and the Militant-controlled Liverpool City Council while working in Kirkby in the 1980s that convinced her to support the Conservative Party. However, she did not become active in politics until 2014. In 2015, she was advised in her ambitions to become an MP by Justine Greening, whom she met by chance at a London Business School reunion; according to her, this demonstrated the power of the LBS network. She unsuccessfully contested the constituency of St Helens South and Whiston in the 2015 general election. In 2015 she became Director of Women2Winan organisation founded by Theresa May and Baroness Anne Jenkin in 2005 to help elect more women Conservative MPs to Parliament. She had left that position by September 2017. Keegan was elected as a councillor for the Rogate ward on Chichester District Council in 2014. She was appointed cabinet member for commercial services in May 2015. She stood down as a councillor in February 2018 and in the election that followed in April 2018, the seat was taken by the Liberal Democrat candidate Kate O'Kelly. Keegan went on to beat O'Kelly by 21,490 votes in the General Election in December 2019. Keegan was selected as the Conservative Parliamentary candidate for the Chichester constituency in May 2017, and was elected to the House of Commons in the General Election held on 8 June 2017. In September 2017, she was appointed to the Public Accounts Committee. Gillian Keegan was appointed PPS to HM Treasury in September 2018. In January 2019 Gillian Keegan became Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Defence. In February 2019, Keegan was appointed as MP Apprenticeship Ambassador by Anne Milton, with responsibility to support apprenticeship schemes and promote them both within Parliament and to businesses within the UK, working alongside the Apprenticeship Ambassador Network consisting of various advocates of apprenticeship schemes. Keegan endorsed Rory Stewart during the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election. Gillian Keegan became Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Home Secretary in May 2019. Gillian became PPS to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in September 2019. In February 2020, Keegan was appointed as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Apprenticeships and Skills, a junior ministerial role at the Department for Education.
Keegan, who owns several properties and has homes in France and Spain, lives in Petworth in West Sussex with her husband Michael, CEO of Fujitsu UK and Ireland, and has two stepsons. Her father-in-law, Denis Keegan, was Conservative MP for Nottingham South. Keegan is godmother to two of former Speaker John Bercow's children.
