5:30 pm
Good evening. As the light fades, we have our latest batch of junior ministerial appointments
Maclean becomes the sixth Minister of State in her Department since the start of 2022, the 15th since the Conservatives returned to power in 2010, and the 23rd this century. Housing crisis, what housing crisis? Lopez continues in a re-jigged role that she held previously under Sunak, Truss, and Johnson. Solloway moves across from the Whips’ Office. Edwards was first elected in 2019, for Kenneth Clarke’s old seat of Rushcliffe, and backed Sunak in both leadership elections last year.
2:30 pm William Atkinson reporting
Good afternoon. Following this morning’s undramatic set of Cabinet appointments, we have the first set of junior ministerial roles.
The last appointment is likely to generate the most attention. Anderson, ex-miner and Labour councillor turned Conservative MP, is the only member of the 2019 intake to have received a post (so far) today. He backed Badenoch and Truss in the first of last year’s leadership elections, and Boris Johnson in the second. One suspects our Backbencher of the Year will not leave his new boss wondering when asked what Red Wall MPs want out of Matthew Parker Street.
11am
We seem to have all the appointments in one go. Sunak is seeking to minimise any reshuffle drama.
Here is the Government’s explanatory statement:
“To ensure the whole of government is geared up to deliver for the British people, the Prime Minister, with the approval of His Majesty The King, has today created four new departments.
The changes will ensure the right skills and teams are focussed on the Prime Minister’s five promises: to halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce debt, cut waiting lists and stop the boats.
A new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, has been tasked with securing our long-term energy supply, bringing down bills and halving inflation. The move recognises the significant impact rising prices have had on households across the country as a result of Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine, and the need to secure more energy from domestic nuclear and renewable sources as we seize the opportunities of net zero.
A dedicated Department for Science, Innovation and Technology will drive the innovation that will deliver improved public services, create new and better-paid jobs and grow the economy. Having a single department focussed on turning scientific and technical innovations into practical, appliable solutions to the challenges we face will help make sure the UK is the most innovative economy in the world.
A combined Department for Business and Trade will support growth by backing British businesses at home and abroad, promoting investment and championing free trade.
Finally, a re-focused Department for Culture, Media and Sport will recognise the importance of these industries to our economy and build on the UK’s position as a global leader in the creative arts.”
10am
The consensus is that there will be not one new department (Energy) but two (Energy – plus a new ministry of Science and Tech).
Cabinet has been pushed back to this afternoon to make time for the appointments.
Steve Swinford of the Times has tweeted “Grant Shapps expected to be new energy security secretary Kemi Badenoch expected to be new business and trade secretary”. Swinford has a record of receiving early reshuffle steers from Number Ten.
And that Greg Hands will indeed be the new Party Chairman.
8am Paul Goodman reporting
A small-scale Cabinet reshuffle based on “machinery of government” changes is expected today. Rishi Sunak evidently also wants to get on with appointing a new Party Chairman. Speculation about the shuffle to date raises some questions.
I was told yesterday evening that Rishi Sunak’s wish for due process is currently outweighing his desire for a tidy shuffle. In other words, that Adam Tolley’s investigation of the Deputy Prime Minister isn’t complete; that it may not come for some time; that the Prime Minister will therefore keep Raab in Cabinet for the time being…and that a further small shuffle will take place in the event of the report not clearing the Deputy Prime Minister. But we will see.
The Sun claims that the Business Department may be merged with Trade (or rather re-merged); that Digital could go to it and leave Culture, Media and Sport; and that a new Energy department may be created (or rather re-created).
That would make sense of the numbers. There can be up to 21 full Cabinet members plus the Lord Chancellor. There are currently 20 plus the Lord Chancellor. Merging Business and Trade would bring the total down to 19 plus the Lord Chancellor – so making space for a new Energy Secretary and the new Conservative Party Chairman (presumably as Minister without Portfolio.)
Sunak pledged a separate Department of Energy and a new Energy Security Committee tasked with reforming the market and cutting future bills during his leadership election campaign.
Although the Prime Minister went (late) to COP27, climate change isn’t on his list of five priorities, and didn’t really feature in his New Year speech. An Energy Department without climate change in the title – or perhaps even with it – would signal a shift from green policies to energy security. The Conservative Environment Network is troubled. And some will ask whether institutional changes of any kind amount to anything more than a changing of deckchairs.
What goes around comes around. A Business and Trade department? Sounds remarkably like the old Department for Trade and Industry. (A creation of the Heath premiership.) A department of Energy? Sounds like another product of the Heath era.
We are at the familiar stage of events where journalists are writing each other’s speculation. The names being floated for promotion to Matthew Parker Street and the new departments include Grant Shapps, Penny Mordaunt and Greg Hands. Michelle Donelan is due soon to take maternity leave.
Shapps has been Chairman before, sharing the post with Andrew Feldman in the run-up to the 2015 general election: his brief leadership bid last summer stressed his campaigning credentials. Hands has served as an Energy Minister (and is also a combative campaigner).
It would be surprising were at least one of the three posts not to go to a woman, and there is of course one already in place at Trade: Kemi Badenoch. I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point pre-election another Sunak loyalist, Liam Fox, returned to Cabinet, plus for that matter that Simon Clarke, formerly a Truss Cabinet member but untainted by the mini-Budget episode.