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Home Secretary Amber Rudd was involved in a string of firms that went bust with debts ­totalling millions of pounds.

Critics claimed our probe showed she is not up to the job. One said: “It wouldn’t look good on anyone’s CV.”

Mrs Rudd ’s judgement has been called into question after the Mirror uncovered her “dubious” track record in business.

The Tory Home Secretary, in control of an £11billion annual budget, ran a string of firms that went bust owing millions of pounds.

Losers included shareholders and the taxman.

Labour MP John Mann said: “The Mirror’s investigation into Mrs Rudd’s business record exposes her unsuitability to be overseeing crime, counter-terrorism and policing.

“She’s a typical Tory, leaving others to pick up the pieces of failure.”

The Daily Mirror has examined Mrs Rudd’s record before she entered politics in 2005.

We found she was the director of a city firm which went bust in 1992, owing £537,581 – including £67,977 to the Inland Revenue.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

Mrs Rudd was also a “corporate advisor” at a biodegradable plastics firm during a failed “major expansion” that was later criticised as being “too swift”. That firm went into liquidation owing £4.8million, mostly to shareholders.

And she also set up a financial services company which was shut down in the High Court over its £1.2million debts, including to the taxman.

Last month Mrs Rudd was was linked to two firms registered in a tax haven.

A document leak named her as director of Bahamas-based Advanced Asset Allocation Fund and Advanced Asset ­Allocation Management, between 1998 and 2000.

Molly Scott Cato, Green Party MEP and spokeswoman for economics, said last night: “Revelations about the dubious history of a number of further companies of which Ms Rudd was a director not only raise questions about her business acumen but her suitability to be a senior member of a government that has ­positioned itself as seeking to foster a more responsible form of capitalism.

(Image: Roland Leon / Daily Mirror)

“It would appear that the Home Secretary has been involved with companies whose behaviour has been not only irresponsible but also unethical.

“Tomorrow I will be calling on Amber Rudd to appear before the Panama Papers inquiry committee to explain these worrying revelations.”

Justin Urquhart Stewart, co-founder of city firm Seven Investment Management, added: “This is a very poor record of ­business experience and would not look good on anyone’s CV, let alone a senior government minister. “

Prime Minister Theresa May appointed Mrs Rudd Home Secretary in July – barely five years after she was elected MP for Hastings and Rye.

Tomorrow she will deliver a keynote speech at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham.

Mrs Rudd was educated at £34,000-a-year Cheltenham Ladies’ College and later worked for investment bank JP Morgan.

(Image: Getty Images)

After stockbroker father Tony Rudd was investigated by the Department of Trade and Industry in the 1980s and found to be “totally unfit” to be a director, she joined family firm­ Lawnstone. Her website said she later moved into venture capital.

A spokesman for Amber Rudd MP said: "It is a matter of public record that Amber had a career in business before working in politics."

The firms:

Lawnstone

Amber Rudd became a director of Lawnstone in the late 1980s along with her mother. Her father, stockbroker Tony Rudd, had been described as “totally unfit” to be a company director in a report by the Department of Trade and Industry into an investment trust called Greenbank. Tony Rudd, remained a shareholder and was reportedly paid as a consultant. In 2014, he donated £5,000 to Mrs Rudd’s political office.

Portsville (finance)

Rudd was a director of Lawnstone when it bought Portsville Finance Limited in April 1991. The next year’s accounts reveal Portsville was put into receivership owing £537,581 including £67,977 to the Inland Revenue. Portsville was owed £575,271 by related firm Tobias Holdings Limited, also run by Rudd. Filings signed by Rudd indicate this loan was never repaid and Tobias went into liquidation.

Zinc Metallurgical

Rudd was a founding director in Zinc Metallurgical Products PLC, set up in 1996 to develop a “revolutionary” zinc extraction process. It became The Zinc Corporation PLC and raised more than a million pounds in investment but lost £1.2million in three-and-a-half years before being bought by Monticello plc and renamed Warkworth. Rudd was a director until May 2000. In 2002 it was wound up by the High Court over unpaid debts.

Monticello

She was a director of Monticello PLC when chief exective Mark O’Hanlon gave a misleading interview in January 2000 about the company’s prospects. The share price soared but the firm went into liquidation three years later owing £1.8million. Rudd resigned five months after the interview . A probe led to O’Hanlon being jailed for 18 months. A court heard “many investors lost a very considerable sum of money”.

Environmental Polymers

Rudd joined Environmental Polymers PLC, a biodegradable plastics company, as a “corporate advisor” in 1999 and sat on the board for nine months, during which it began a “major expansion”. It raised £4.5million from investors after floating on the stock market but losses rose from £1.2m in 1999-2000 to £2m in 2000-1 and £2.7m in 2001-2. It went into liquidation in 2003 owing £4.8m, mostly to shareholders.

Investors Noticeboard

She was a founding director of financial services firm Investors Noticeboard, set up in 1999. It was a subsidiary of INB plc, of which she was also a director from 2000 to 2003. Investors Noticeboard went into a “Company Voluntary Arrangement” in March 2001 owing £368,214 but failed to meet payments and was wound up. INB owed £1.2million to investors when it went into liquidation in December 2001.