Prime Minister Liz Truss has finished assembling her cabinet team. We take a look at who is known to be leaving the government, and some of the possible new faces.
Who’s in the Cabinet?
In her top team, Truss has appointed:
- Chancellor – Kwasi Kwarteng. He was previously a business secretary.
- Home secretary – Suella Braverman
- Foreign secretary – James Cleverly He was previously education secretary
- Deputy prime minister – Therese Coffey
- Health secretary – Coffey, who is a close ally of Truss, also takes this role
- Education secretary – Kit Malthouse
- Defence secretary – Ben Wallace
- Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, running the Cabinet Office – Nadhim Zahawi. He’s also a minister for intergovernmental relations and minister for equalities.
- Business, energy and industrial strategy secretary – Jacob Rees-Mogg
- Culture secretary – Michelle Donelan
- Levelling up secretary – Simon Clarke
- Environment secretary – Ranil Jayawardena
- International trade secretary – leadership contender Kemi Badenoch
- Work and pensions secretary – Chloe Smith
- Transport secretary – Anne-Marie Trevelyan
- Justice secretary – Brandon Lewis
- Northern Ireland secretary – Chris Heaton-Harris
- Wales Secretary – Alister Jack
- Wales secretary – Sir Robert Buckland
- COP president – Alok Sharma
- Leader of the Commons, the role that looks after legislation – Penny Mordaunt
- Leader of the Lords – Lord True
Jake Berry – who chairs the Northern Research Group of Tory MPs – is Tory chairman and minister without portfolio, and Wendy Morton is the first Conservative female chief whip. New Chief Secretary to the Treasury Chris Philp, Attorney General Michael Ellis, foreign office minister Vicky Ford and security minister Tom Tugendhat will also attend cabinet. James Heappey becomes minister for armed forces and veterans, Graham Stuart is climate minister and Edward Argar is the new paymaster general.
Who’s out?
On Monday, Home Secretary Priti Patel and Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries made it known they would be standing down. Ms Patel had been expected to be replaced at the Home Office but insisted leaving the government was “her choice”. Ms Dorries – a prominent figure in the Truss campaign – was asked to stay on, but plans to return to writing novels. Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary Dominic Raab – who backed Rishi Sunak in the leadership contest – has confirmed he is returning to the backbenches. So too are Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, Health Secretary Steve Barclay Levelling Up Secretary Greg Clark and Northern Ireland Secretary Shailesh Vara. Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer, who attended Cabinet, has been sacked. As has another figure who attended Cabinet, party co-chairman Andrew Stephenson.
Another Sunak supporter – former Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove – has said he expects not to be a member of the new government. It’s thought unlikely Rishi Sunak himself will feature in Ms Truss’s team – he told the BBC a return to the cabinet was “not something I’m thinking about”. Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith told the BBC’s World At One he had been offered a cabinet job but turned it down in favour of staying on the backbenches.
