‘The zealots are turning people off’: Claire Coutinho on net zero and her bond with Rishi Sunak

When Claire Coutinho picked her A-levels in 2002, she received a phone call from her grandmother in India. ‘She could see that I’d not picked medical subjects,’ Coutinho says: she’d gone for maths, history of art and English – a glitch in the matrix for a family that tends to choose medical school. ‘She told me that she may not last very long and it was her final wish that I reconsider.’ Coutinho stuck to plan A; her grandmother lived for another ten years. Last month, at 38, she became one of the youngest secretaries of state in British history.

We meet in her soon-to-be-vacated office with a rooftop view of Westminster Abbey and a whole floor of advisers and aides. Not so long ago, Coutinho was one of those advisers. She had begun her career in finance but, looking at the career train tracks ahead, she jumped off. She tried catering, the charity sector and other jobs, moved to politics and ended up as special adviser to Rishi Sunak.