Ruth Porter, Baroness Porter of Fulwood

Ruth Oates Porter, Baroness Porter of Fulwood is a British life peer and former political adviser who served as Downing Street Deputy Chief of Staff under Prime Minister Liz Truss from September to October 2022. She previously worked as a special adviser in various government departments.

Education and career
Porter studied politics and philosophy at the University of Warwick before moving to New Zealand.

Early career (2004–2014)
Porter spent several years working for think-tanks including the Maxim Institute in New Zealand where she was a policy analyst from 2004 to 2007 and then as Communications Manager from 2007 to 2009. She was the Programme Manager at techUK from July 2009 to February 2010 and then was the Communications Director at the Institute of Economic Affairs from March 2010 to December 2013, where she called for a reduction in housing benefit and child benefit, charging patients to use the NHS, cutting overseas aid and scrapping green funds. She became the Head of Economics and Social Policy at Policy Exchange in January 2014 and held the position for 8 months until August of the same year.

Special adviser (2014–2017)
Porter was a special adviser between 2014 and 2017, in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to Environment Secretary Liz Truss from 2014 to 2015, then to Leader of the House of Commons Chris Grayling from 2015 to 2016, and then returned to Truss in the Ministry of Justice from 2016 to 2017.

Private sector and political candidacy (2017–2022)
Porter then moved to the private sector where she became Head of UK government relations at London Stock Exchange Group in November 2017 and was promoted to Head of International Affairs, government relations and regulatory strategy in April 2020. She later became managing director at Finsbury Glover Hering in April 2021 and then at FGS Global in June 2022.

Porter was on a Conservative party shortlist as a candidate to become Member of Parliament for Arundel and South Downs for the 2019 general election but Andrew Griffith was selected instead.

Porter was a Conservative candidate in the 2022 Richmond upon Thames London Borough Council election for St Margarets and North Twickenham but was not elected, finishing with 646 votes.

Downing Street Deputy Chief of Staff (2022)
From September to October 2022, Porter served as the Downing Street Deputy Chief of Staff under Liz Truss. She had previously run the Truss election campaign alongside Mark Fullbrook.

Post-government career (2022–present)
After her career in Downing Street as Deputy Chief of Staff, Porter sought advice from the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments who considered the risk of her returning to her career she held previously being a reward for actions taken in office as low, and Porter returned to her previous position as managing director at FGS Global in February 2023.

Porter was nominated by Liz Truss for a life peerage in her list of resignation honours. She was created Baroness Porter of Fulwood, of Fulwood in the City of Sheffield, on 13 February 2024.

Personal life
Porter has two daughters.