Cabinet 'resignation reshuffle': All the ministerial changes

New levelling up and education secretaries among more than 20 new appointments
Boris Johnson chairs a meeting with his new Cabinet after resigning. Photo: No.10/Flickr

By Tevye Markson

08 Jul 2022

Greg Clark is the new levelling up secretary and James Cleverly has taken over as education secretary, as Boris Johnson shores up his new caretaker government following an unprecedented week of ministerial resignations.

They join new appointments announced during last week including health secretary Steve Barclay, who replaced Sajid Javid, the first minister to resign last Tuesday; and Nadhim Zahawi, who succeeded Rishi Sunak as chancellor.

The prime minister, who quit as Tory leader but plans to stay in No.10 until a new leader is elected by the party, has begun filling vacant positions in government after some departments were left with just one or two ministers.

Here are all the new appointments in last week's reshuffle.

Secretaries of state

  • Former education secretary Nadhim Zahawi is the new chancellor, taking over from Rishi Sunak, who – alongside Sajid Javid – began the wave of resignations.
  • Kit Malthouse is the new Cabinet Office minister after Steve Barclay was named health secretary. He moves from his role as minister for policing at the Home Office and Ministry of Justice
  • Foreign Office minister James Cleverly has been appointed to take over as education secretary from Michelle Donelan, who resigned just 48 hours after taking the job over from Zahawi
  • Cabinet Office minister and No.10 chief of staff Steve Barclay is the new health secretary, replacing Javid
  • Greg Clark makes a return to cabinet as levelling up secretary. A former business secretary, Clark has spent the last two and a half years chairing parliament's science and technology committee, but has stepped down in light of his new post. He replaces Michael Gove, who – amid dozens of resignations – was the only minister to be sacked by the PM
  • Robert Buckland also returns to cabinet, nearly a year after being shuffled out as justice secretary. He has taken over from Simon Hart, who resigned, as Welsh secretary
  • Shailesh Vara has been named Northern Ireland secretary, his first cabinet post, following Brandon Lewis’s resignation

Ministers

  • Lord commissioner of the Treasury Alan Mak is the new exchequer secretary to the Treasury
  • Backbencher Richard Fuller becomes economic secretary to the Treasury, his first ministeral post
  • Transport minister Andrew Stephenson named minister without portfolio at the Cabinet Office (he will attend cabinet)
  • Johnny Mercer returns to his job as minister for veterans’ affairs at the Cabinet Office (he will attend cabinet). He previously held the role between July 2019 and April 2021, as well as being a defence minister
  • Backbench MP Graham Stuart named Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office minister. He was an exports minister between 2018 and 2021
  • Backbench MP Rehman Chishti also becomes an FCDO minister
  • Stephen McPartland gets his first ministerial role as security minister at the Home Office
  • Tom Pursglove remains at the Home Office and Ministry of Justice but has been promoted from parliamentary under-secretary of state, the most junior ministerial rank, to minister of state
  • Assistant government whip Sarah Dines named a minister jointly at the MoJ and the Home Office
  • Stuart Andrew named as an MoJ minister, after resigning as a housing minister
  • James Heappey, a former defence minister and PPS to the prime minister, returns to the Ministry of Defence
  • Will Quince, who resigned as children's minister, has been reappointed to his old department as a minister in the Department for Education
  • Brendan Clarke-Smith gets his first ministerial post as a DfE minister
  • Maria Caulfield has also been reappointed as a minister at Department for Health and Social Care after resigning
  • Business minister Paul Scully moves to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. He also remains minister for London
  • Government whip Marcus Jones appointed as a minister at DLUHC
  • PPS to the prime minister Lia Nici also named as a new DLUHC minister
  • Matt Warman returns to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, where he was a minister from July 2019 to September 2021
  • Trudy Harrison remains a Department for Transport minister, with a promotion
  • Edward Timpson named solicitor general. He was a children's minister from 2016 to 2017 and chaired the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel from 2018 to 2020

Click here for a list of all the ministers who have remained in post and here for all the ministers who have left.

Read the most recent articles written by Tevye Markson - Greening Government Commitments: How is Defra getting on?

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