[2] Rudd worked as an investment banker before being elected to the House of Commons for Hastings and Rye in East Sussex in 2010, defeating incumbent Labour MP Michael Foster.

Rudd was vice-chair of the Parliamentary committee on female genital mutilation,[25] which campaigned against FGM and called for tougher legal penalties in the area.

"[34] In July 2015, Craig Bennett of Friends of the Earth accused Rudd of hypocrisy in claiming to want to address climate change while at the same time, in his view, "dismantling an architecture of low-carbon policies carefully put together with cross-party agreement over the course of two parliaments".

Rudd replied that "[Government] support must help technologies eventually stand on their own two feet, not encourage a permanent reliance on subsidy.

[39] In August 2017, Rudd replied to an email hoaxer posing as the recently appointed Downing Street director of communications, Robbie Gibb, revealing that "positive announcements" were imminent.

[40] In September 2017 on The Andrew Marr Show, Rudd accused Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson of trying to undermine the Prime Minister, Theresa May, calling him a 'back-seat driver'.

[45] In October 2017, Rudd announced a move by the Conservative government to crack down on what British citizens are permitted to view on the internet.

Piloted as part of a campaign against "radicalisation", Rudd stated that the government would be tightening the law so that British citizens repeatedly reading certain forbidden internet content could face up to 15 years in jail for looking at the websites.

Rudd stated "I want to make sure those who view despicable terrorist content online, including jihadi websites, far-right propaganda and bomb-making instructions, face the full force of the law.

A section of the report states: "Since 2012–13, weighted crime demand on the police has risen, largely due to growth in recorded sex offences.

[47] On 16 November 2018, Rudd returned to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions following the resignation of Esther McVey over opposition to Theresa May's Draft Withdrawal Agreement and the Brexit negotiations.

[58] She has supported electrification of the Marshlink Line from Hastings to Ashford International, organising transport decision-makers for a series of rail summits.

I described the well-known problems that Hastings has to the Financial Times but I also talked about the incredible investment in the town, the fact that unemployment is going down and that there are many positive things to say about it.

[8] In 2019, Rudd endorsed and campaigned for former Justice Secretary David Gauke who was standing as an Independent in South West Hertfordshire against the Conservative candidate.

In April 2018, it was reported that the children of immigrants of the "Windrush generation" who arrived before 1973 were being threatened with deportation by the British government if they could not prove their right to remain in the UK.

Rudd apologised for the "appalling" treatment of the Windrush generation,[64] but faced calls to resign from senior figures in the Labour Party.

[65] On 23 April 2018, Rudd announced that fees and language tests for citizenship applicants would be waived and compensation given to those affected amidst continued calls for her to resign.

[68] The New Statesman said that the leaked memo gave, "in specific detail the targets set by the Home Office for the number of people to be removed from the United Kingdom.

[73] In September 2018, during an interview on BBC Two's Politics Live, Rudd said that she had little choice but to resign given the "justifiable outrage" at the Government's handling of the Windrush generation.

[45] During her time as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, when she was expected to make a final decision on the construction of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, Rudd was criticised for not declaring a conflict of interest arising from her brother Roland's role as chairman and founder of Finsbury; his lobbying firm represented a company that had a £100 million construction contract for the power plant, and the Register of Members' Financial Interests had recently introduced a new category of "family members engaged in lobbying".

[77] The proposal was revealed as a key plank of a government drive to reduce net migration and encourage businesses to hire British staff.

[78] Labour responded by saying that the plan would "fan the flames of xenophobia and hatred in our communities" and the SNP described it as "the most disgraceful display of reactionary right-wing politics in living memory".

[80] Rudd's speech was recorded by West Midlands Police as a hate incident following a complaint by the physicist Joshua Silver, but was not investigated.

[81] In August 2017, an emergency High Court hearing was held to examine Rudd's four-week delay in releasing an asylum seeker, who had been tortured in a Libyan prison, from a British detention centre.

[83] In September 2017, The Guardian reported that Rudd had authorised the deportation of Samim Bigzad to Kabul, in breach of an earlier ruling banning her from doing so owing to the ongoing threat to his life from the Taliban.

[86] In a radio interview in March 2019, Amber Rudd attacked racist and misogynistic attacks against then Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott claiming that online abuse "definitely is worse if you're a woman, it's worst of all if you're a coloured woman" and "I know that Diane Abbott gets a huge amount of abuse, that's something we need to call out.

Rudd called the decision “badly judged” and “rude” and encouraged students who opposed her politics to “stop hiding and start engaging”[89][90] In July 2020, she began presenting her own show, Split Opinion, on Times Radio, alongside her daughter, the journalist Flora Gill.

[92] In October 2021, it was announced that Rudd had departed Teneo to take up a role as a senior advisor at Finsbury Glover Hering (FGH), a strategic advisory and communications firm partly founded by her brother Roland.

[97] According to her X account page as of August 2023, Rudd's bio states that she works "in the private sector, primarily in energy and cyber security.

[103] Rudd has been a director of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize since 2003, an annual award for a first-time female playwright in the English language.