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Artillery Row

Reshuffle Live

Liz Truss replaces Dominic Raab as Foreign Secretary

Steve Barclay, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, has moved to the Cabinet Office, taking on the role vacated by Michael Gove.


Gavin Williamson department has finally been filled. The vaccine Minister Nadhim Zahawi has become the Education Secretary


Nadine Dorries, a best-selling author and the current Minister for Mental Health, Suicide Prevention and Patient Safety, has accepted the role of Culture Secretary, replacing Oliver Dowden who has become Party Chairman and Minister without Portfolio.



Laura K reporting that Oliver Dowden is becoming Party Chairman


Michael Gove is the new Minister for Housing, Communities and Local Government.


Junior Health Minister Nadine Dorries,Vaccine Minister Nadhim Zahawi and Chief Whip Mark Spencer have gone into No.1o.


Liz Truss has been appointed Foreign Secretary. A canny politician who backed Remain in the EU referendum, Truss won round Brexiteers during her time in Theresa May’s cabinet. She leaves the Department for International Trade vacant.


Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden, has gone into No.10


Unconfirmed report that Michael Gove has become Housing Secretary


Unsurprising that Rishi Sunak hasn’t been moved as Chancellor, but speculation that Priti Patel could be moved as a result of her failure to stop migrant boats crossing the channel, appear to have been unfounded.


Amanda Milling, a long-standing ally of Boris Johnson, has been sacked as Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party.


Dominic Raab is no longer Foreign Secretary and has accepted the vacant role of Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor. He also becomes Deputy Prime Minister which is an improvement on his previous title of First Secretary of State.


It appears that Boris Johnson has finished the sacking part of the reshuffle for now, although we’re awaiting news of Dominic Raab.


Dominic Raab has been seen walking into No.10

https://twitter.com/SebastianEPayne/status/1438140869752860678?s=20


Boris Johnson appears to have finished a very long meeting with Dominic Raab amidst speculation he’s resisting being moved from the Foreign Office.


Conor Burns, a long-standing ally of Boris Johnson, appears confident he won’t be offered a job.


Sam Coates reports Steve Barclay, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and former Brexit Secretary, wil become Cabinet Secretary, the job occupied by Michael Gove.


Robert Jenrick has been sacked as Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary.

A former PPS to former Home Secretary Amber Rudd, Jenrick was appointed to Housing by Boris Johnson when he became Prime Minister in 2019 but his time in the department has been dogged by a lobbying scandal.


Robert Buckland has been sacked as Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary.

A highly popular figure on all wings of the parliamentary Tory party, the “born for the wig” ex-Lord Chancellor was long seen as being gossipy and amused by ambition which charmed colleagues and journalists but evidently has rubbed No 10 up the wrong way. The speculation is that he was sacked simply to make way for a demoted cabinet incumbent, possibly Dominic Raab. But this move has immediately attracted much more criticism than Gavin Williamson’s departure. “Shockingly bad” one whip said to me, “this will please no one. He was honest and competent and everyone likes him. I wouldn’t want to have to be his whip now either.”


Gavin Williamson has been sacked as Education Secretary.

Seen as a savvy operator as Theresa May’s chief whip, he helped to coordinate the confidence and supply agreement with the DUP which saved Theresa May’s Government after her 2017 election blunder. Williamson kept the No.10 operation alive after it collapsed in the wake of the general election result, and was indispensable to the Tories staying in office. Arguably the quintessential back room operator should not have manoeuvred himself into the role of Defence Secretary in 2017, where he soon came a cropper in a battle with May and the then Cabinet Secretary. From the backbenches he was central to Boris Johnson’s parliamentary leadership campaign and was appointed Education Secretary. Where he was heavily criticised for the department’s many u-turns — particularly over the method of awarding student grades without exams — as DfE sought to keep up with wider government pandemic policies. A task arguably no one could have done successfully.

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