Liz Truss, Britain’s new Prime Minister, has appointed her new cabinet. You can find a full list of the comings and goings here. Here’s how all the developments unfolded on an historic day in SW1:
11.44pm – Truss completes her cabinet
Isabel Hardman writes… That’s the reshuffle over for tonight, with a full cabinet list published here. The official line is: ‘The Prime Minister has appointed a cabinet which represents the depth and breadth of talent in the Conservative party. Containing no fewer than five other candidates from the recent leadership election, this is a cabinet which will unify the party, get our economy growing and deliver for the British people.’
11.04pm – Tugendhat in government
Isabel Hardman writes… Tom Tugendhat is finally in the government, having made a virtue of being an outsider for the past few years. He is security minister attending cabinet. Tugendhat backed Truss (like almost all her ministers so far), which was a surprising choice for some in the party. He sustained criticism when standing for the leadership for complaining from the sidelines rather than taking the difficult decisions in government. Well, now’s his chance.
That criticism, by the way, came from Kemi Badenoch, who is back in government as Trade Secretary. It’s not the job many expected. It could also be a way of keeping her out of domestic politics where she could build her own profile. The problem is that a previous prime minister thought that about someone he gave that job to. She’s now in charge.
10.50pm – A Sunak supporter appointed
James Forsyth writes… The first Sunak backer of the night has been appointed and it is Michael Ellis. He will be Attorney General and attend cabinet. This means that the whole of the full cabinet is made up of people who either publicly backed Truss or stayed neutral. This is not a reshuffle about party unity.
There are pluses and minuses to this approach. The plus is that the cabinet are fully signed up to the Truss agenda. The minus is that it will make it harder to calm the parliamentary party in difficult times.
10.41pm – Buckland in at the Wales Office amid suspicion from colleagues
Katy Balls writes… Robert Buckland has just been confirmed to stay on as Secretary of State for Wales. It comes after Buckland switched his support from Rishi Sunak to Liz Truss in a move that saw MPs blast him as careerist. The fact that a ‘switcher’ is being rewarded with a job once again points to how loyalty is a defining theme of Truss’s government appointments. However, there are MPs in the party who take a different view to switching allegiances halfway through a contest when it’s clear which side is winning. ‘He’s lost a lot of respect on the backbenches,’ argues one Sunak backer.
10.26pm – Truss ally gets NI brief
James Forsyth writes… Chris Heaton-Harris, Boris Johnson’s last Chief Whip, becomes Northern Ireland Secretary. Heaton-Harris was one of Truss’s junior ministers when she first took on the protocol brief and an ERG man. It is safe to assume that he’ll back the hard line Truss is currently taking on the issue.
9.42pm – Kemi gets Trade
James Forsyth writes… Badenoch is the new International Trade Secretary. It is not a domestic brief – DCMS and Education were the most natural fits for her – and it is hard to see how this brief plays to the immense strengths she demonstrated in the leadership contest. But having said that Liz Truss proved how potent the trade brief can be in political terms. Though, Badenoch – as a 2016 Brexiteer – won’t derive quite the same benefit from it that Truss did.
9.25pm – Mogg has the energy brief
Kate Andrews writes… Conservative governments always pay lip service to business and the importance of free enterprise; but this government just might mean it. That’s why Jacob Rees-Mogg’s appointment as Business Secretary is a rather notable move by Liz Truss. One of the three main prongs of her economic agenda is to adopt pro-growth policies, which imply major reforms that will impact businesses: slashing red tape, overhauling City regulations, and the like. Under Prime Minister Truss, the Business Secretary could prove a regenerative role; and Truss has given it to one of the most loyal MPs during her campaign, as well as the politician who gives her a run for her money when it comes to advocating free-market, lean-state reform.
Isabel Hardman writes… Jacob Rees-Mogg is confirmed as Business Secretary – another appointment that wasn’t a surprise, not least because he has been involved in some of the talks about help with energy bills. It is not a huge leap in many ways from his Brexit Opportunities brief, and he will be tasked with the ‘reform’ side of growing the economy that Truss spoke about in her speech – cutting red tape (a promise that David Cameron made back in the first ‘aspiration nation’ era), and so on. Given one of his infamous crusades in his previous job was against civil servants working from home (often because the slimming down of government premises meant there weren’t enough desks for them at the office anyway), it will be interesting to see whether he takes a wider stance on people working from home in the private sector, too.
9.12pm – Truss hits the phone to Kyiv
Isabel Hardman writes… Liz Truss’s first phone call to a world leader as Prime Minister was to Volodymyr Zelensky. Downing Street says she told the Ukrainian president that he ‘had her full backing, and Ukraine could depend on the UK’s assistance for the long-term.’ She accepted an invitation to visit Ukraine soon – something she has been very keen to do. It is not surprising that Truss wanted to make Ukraine her international priority – but the call also underlined the domestic pressures she is facing. The readout says that ‘the Prime Minister said it was vital Russia’s blackmail did not deter the west from ensuring Putin fails. She also underscored the importance of ensuring the UK and our allies continue to build energy independence’. We are waiting confirmation of her big plan to deal with energy bills, but we know that part of the way she will sell it is by saying the difficulties of this winter are Putin’s fault and Britons need to stand firm in solidarity with Ukrainians. They’re much more likely to do that, of course, if they feel their own government is cushioning the blows as much as possible.
8.46pm – Berry at the helm
Isabel Hardman writes… Jake Berry is the new party chair, appointed to the government as minister without portfolio. Berry has become highly influential over the last few years as chair of the Northern Research Group and despite being an early supporter of Boris Johnson, wasn’t afraid to put the boot in when he felt ‘red wall’ seats were being ignored. Now, he’s in charge of ensuring those seats stay Tory at the next election.
8.32pm – I can’t believe it’s True
James Heale writes… It’s the one they were all waiting for – Nick True replaces Natalie Evans, the great survivor of British politics, as leader of the House of Lords. Evans had held the post since 2016 – the longest tenure since 1951 – but after six years has now decided to give way to an older colleague.
True’s career something of a microcosm for the Tory party’s changes over the past 50 years. He joined the then Heathite Conservative Research Department under Chris Patten in 1975, served as a special adviser to Norman Fowler in the Thatcher years then was deputy head of John Major’s Policy Unit and the PM’s favourite speechwriter. He then went to work for Lord Strathclyde as his Private Secretary during the long years of New Labour opposition before being ennobled in 2011. His appointment brings to an end the speculation that Michael Forsyth would make an improbable comeback after a 25 year absence from government. And it also provides a degree of continuity too with the ancien régime: True’s daughter Sophia has just left Downing Street as a special adviser herself. Her fiancée is Declan Lyons, the outgoing No. 10 Political Secretary.
8.22pm – Penny Mordaunt appointed leader of the House
Isabel Hardman writes… Penny Mordaunt is leader of the House of Commons. It isn’t the most prominent of the cabinet jobs, and is often a bit of a God’s waiting room for ministers on their last government job. But it does mean that the former leadership contender is at the cabinet table. It also lends itself well to Mordaunt’s strengths. As well as ensuring that the business of the House runs smoothly, and picking up early signs of disquiet on certain policy issues, the Leader of the House is supposed to be funny. The Business Statement on a Thursday has traditionally required frontbenchers to use wit as they characterise their opponents. Mordaunt has plenty of that, and has given a number of very funny (if at times rather lewd) speeches in parliament. It is also an interesting appointment alongside that of Wendy Morton as chief whip as the leader of the House is concerned with the culture in parliament. During the leadership contest Mordaunt proposed changing the role of the whips’ office and trying to improve standards among MPs. Will Truss have picked that up and given it to her minister to get on with?
8.14pm – Kemi’s ideal role goes to Zahawi
James Forsyth writes… Nadhim Zahawi, the former Chancellor, becomes the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and the minister for equalities. The last part is particularly interesting as it means that role will not go to Kemi Badenoch, who was the minister of state for equalities under Truss in the Johnson administration. This suggests that the Truss team have no desire to build the political profile of a leadership candidate who stayed neutral throughout the members’ round.
8.00pm – Brandon Lewis in at the MoJ
James Forsyth writes… Brandon Lewis is the new Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor. With Michael Gove and Dominic Raab – two of his predecessors – both on the backbenches, Lewis’s actions will be scrutinised particularly closely. He faces complicated questions about what to do about the barristers strike, the courts backlog, the situation in prisons and how to handle the UK’s relationship with the European Court of Human Rights. He’ll also have to handle those lawyers worried about his previous comments about breaking international law in a specific and limited way.
7.46pm – Is this an IEA government?
James Heale writes… There’s one group in Westminster who will certainly be cheering tonight’s reshuffle: the free market wonks over at the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA). All four great offices of state are now occupied by alumni of the IEA’s parliamentary outreach programme. Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng set up the Free Enterprise Group caucus in 2011 and James Cleverly and Suella Braverman both signed up as members after being elected in 2015. The choices reflect the premium which Truss places on personal loyalty and ideological compatibility too.
7.40pm – The fickle nature of politics
Steerpike writes… ‘It’s a funny old world’ said Margaret Thatcher at her final cabinet meeting in 1990 after being turned out. Rishi Sunak might be reflecting on that sentiment tonight as he considers the appointment of Wendy Morton, the first female Tory Chief Whip. Morton was the association chair in Richmond who was defeated as a parliamentary candidate by Rishi Sunak in 2014. Now she will get a cabinet job out of his demise and he has to take his marching orders from her. How the tables have turned…
7.35pm – The first female Chief Whip appointed
Isabel Hardman writes… Wendy Morton is the first ever female Chief Whip of the Conservative party, which signals a desire to move away from the toxic culture of MPs’ behaviour which in part led to Boris Johnson’s downfall. It is probably stretching it a bit to say that merely appointing a woman to the whips’ office is going to solve the issues of sexual harassment and bullying in the party – and across parliament for that matter. Indeed, the very way the whips’ office operates makes it difficult to address that culture, because the whips have to balance their role as enforcers with their pastoral responsibilities. It is a ridiculous conflict of interest which repeatedly fails parliament as the whips never achieve any kind of balance, naturally focusing on getting MPs through the right lobbies for votes, and in many cases using information that should be treated as a pastoral issue as a weapon to force the more recalcitrant ones to back the government. If Morton has a genuine commitment to the pastoral aspect of her job, she should make clear that she’s not going to do it at all.
7.22pm – Suella Braverman in as Home Secretary
Katy Balls… Suella Braverman has just been confirmed as the new Home Secretary. Previously Attorney General, Braverman’s promotion has seen to be nailed on for some time. The pivotal moment came during the parliamentary rounds. When Braverman was knocked out in an early round, she urged her supporters – many of who were members of the European Research Group of Brexiteers – to row in behind Truss. That endorsement came after talks with Team Truss where it appears cabinet roles were discussed.
So, what will Braverman bring to the role? The hope in Truss’s team is that Braverman will be able to use her legal knowledge to tackle the issue of small boat crossings. Her appointment also raises questions about the European convention on human rights. Braverman has previously said extricating the UK from the influence of the ECHR is a ‘national priority’. She believes that the court’s approach on rights issues frustrates UK efforts on deporting overseas offenders as well as tackling protests.
7.15pm – Cleverly appointed Foreign Secretary
James Forsyth writes… Liz Truss’s decision to appoint James Cleverly, her minister of state at the Foreign Office, as Foreign Secretary shows – unsurprisingly – that she wishes to see continuity in her old department. Cleverly will carry on her position in Ukraine, toughen the line on China in the way that Truss wants and be prepared to play hardball on the protocol, an issue that was key to Truss’s victory in the leadership contest.
The other striking thing about the appointment is that it shows Truss’s confidence in her own position. She could have used the role to reach out to some of the leadership contenders who had come to her in the final round, think Tom Tugendhat – chair of the Foreign Affairs select committee, or Penny Mordaunt – a former Defence Secretary, in the name of party unity. Or, she could have recalled a grandee, such as Jeremy Hunt, to the colours. But she has instead chosen to promote one of her own junior ministers.
7.08pm – Kwasi Kwarteng becomes Chancellor
James Forsyth writes… Kwasi Kwarteng is confirmed as the new Chancellor. He and Liz Truss are long-time allies. They have written books together, set up party ginger groups and share a very similar view on what will get growth going – tax cuts, business investment and deregulation.
The gamble they are prepared to take is that the markets will accept the government borrowing more to fund tax cuts and give time for reforms that, they think, will boost the trend growth rate of the economy. But three Tory PMs have tried to get growth going but with limited success.
The first order of business for the pair will be to finalise the details of the energy bills package that the government will come out with on Thursday. The key questions are how big will it be and how will it be funded.
Kate Andrews writes… The stark differences in Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak’s attitudes towards economic philosophy (and fiscal responsibility) often delayed decisions and gummed up the system. But many would argue that’s what’s supposed to happen: the Prime Minister offers vision, the Chancellor offers the realistic implementation. ‘Rishi was the only person stopping crazy spending projects’, one MP said to me when Johnson’s premiership started crashing down; ‘he was the counterweight’. That counterweight is essentially now gone.
Kwasi Kwarteng enters the Treasury as the new Chancellor. He approaches the job with a very similar free-market ideology to Liz Truss, ready to implement her tax-cutting agenda as well as her major spending spree on energy support. It will be interesting to see how this new PM-Chancellor dynamic unfolds, especially when Kwarteng is forced to reckon with debt servicing payments, which have skyrocketed with inflation, and finds himself responsible – and blamed – for how the books look. That’s not to say he’ll drift substantially from Truss, but markets will want reassurance that all these spending decisions are being seriously considered and (somewhat) accounted for. Kwarteng will need to show he’s scrutinising all these decisions.
7.00pm – The appointments begin – Coffey to Health and Deputy PM
Isabel Hardman writes… Thérèse Coffey is the new Health Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister. As I wrote earlier, there are policy and personal reasons for this combination of appointments. Truss and Coffey are longstanding friends, and having a friend as Deputy Prime Minister will give the new PM a sense of security. In her speech earlier in Downing Street, Truss once again named health as one of her priorities, and the DPM/Health combination underlines this – though of course it doesn’t guarantee that anything will actually happen. Coffey is a details person and will get under the skin of the NHS quickly – unlike some of her predecessors who have come with ideas about what is happening and what should happen that don’t survive contact with reality. But she has a tough task ahead. It’s not just the backlog in elective treatment that’ll consume a great deal of her time, it’s also meeting Truss’s pledge this afternoon that people should be able to get a GP appointment. One of the things the government needs to address in order to start fixing the crisis in general practice is the pensions issue – a problem that isn’t exactly hidden from view and won’t be new to Coffey given she’s just come from the Work and Pensions brief.
6.39pm – Stephenson out as Tory co-chair
Isabel Hardman writes… Andrew Stephenson has announced he’s out of the job of Tory co-chair. He had not given up on keeping the job, continuing with his hectic schedule of constituency visits right up to the weekend. I was with a group of Greater Manchester Conservative councillors, MPs and activist at the weekend, and they were quite anxious that he remain in the job, feeling he’d done a good job with ‘red wall’ seats. But both he and his co-chair Ben Elliot, who resigned yesterday, have now left the top of the party campaign hierarchy.
6.29pm – Who will be the spads?
Steerpike writes… As expectant MPs walk up Downing Street to enter the black door of No. 10, the fleshpots of Westminster are alive with gossip as to who will be the bag carriers accompanying them. Special advisers (better known as spads) can make or break a minister; witness Dominic Cummings’ role in the downfall of Boris Johnson. The 20-something hopefuls of SW1 are therefore spending the night speculating as to which of their number will shortly be handling the state secrets of those famous red boxes. Truss has already indicated a desire to cut the number of spads to two per minister, ruining many carefully-crafted plans. Those who worked on the Badenoch, Mordaunt and Tugendhat campaigns, for instance, might find they miss out, no matter what goodies they were promised by the new regime. Mr S hears that last night’s rooftop victory party in the City was divided between those who had jobs and those who didn’t. So much for trust in Truss…
6.05pm – Shapps and Barclay join Raab on the backbenches
Katy Balls writes… The cull continues. Both Steve Barclay – the Health Secretary – and Grant Shapps – Transport Secretary – are leaving their government roles. Both were Rishi Sunak backers. It points to how Truss is rewarding loyalty – and prioritising those who backed her publicly in the contest. The risk is that not reaching out makes it harder to unify the party in the long term.
5.48pm – Raab out
Katy Balls writes… Farewell Dominic Raab. In the past few minutes, the former Deputy Prime Minister has confirmed that he will be returning to the backbenches and leaving his role as Justice Secretary. This isn’t particularly surprising. After Raab likened Liz Truss’s economic plans to an electoral suicide note, her supporters have said he will be given a one-way ticket to political Siberia. The news, however, that Truss does not want him to stay on could still have been met with disappointment. When I sat down with Raab last week, he said it was wrong to assume he wouldn’t serve in a Truss government. Ultimately it seems he wasn’t given the option.
5.34pm – Truss promises to ‘get Britain working again’
James Forsyth writes… Liz Truss’s speech set out three priorities for her: the economy, energy and the NHS. She opened by talking about the need to ‘get Britain working again’, by which she meant boosting economic growth which she said she would do through tax cuts, encouraging business investment and deregulation. She then moved to energy saying she would set out plans this week, but there was no more detail given about what the precise plan was. Third, she said she would address the NHS and, in particular, the problem of getting GP appointments: Tory MPs report that this is one of the issues most angering their constituents. In style and tone, the speech was very different from a Boris Johnson one. She doesn’t have his charisma but she does have ideas that she wants to implement that she has been nurturing since she was first elected in 2010. But the challenge for her will be to deliver on the agenda she set out. Among her backers, the hope is that freezing energy prices will win her time and space to try and implement the rest of her agenda, rather than being overwhelmed by the gas crisis. Yet, we await the details of how the package will work and how much it might cost.
5.26pm – The plan to ‘transform’ Britain
Isabel Hardman writes… The interesting thing about the ‘aspiration nation’ line from Truss was that she wasn’t just promising to fix the problems the country is facing but also to ‘transform’ Britain. It’s a big promise to make with just a couple of years before the next election – but it meant that the new prime minister had a more upbeat offering than ‘I’ll mend the holes’.
5.20pm – Can Truss really fix the NHS?
Kate Andrews writes… The new prime minister has laid out three immediate areas of focus for her government: a ‘bold plan to grow the economy through tax cuts and reform’, to ‘deal hands-on with the energy crisis caused by Putin’s war’ and to ‘make sure that people can get appointments’ and access the NHS as they need it. Her tax cutting agenda is fairly well known, although so far it is primarily to roll back the hikes that came under the Johnson government rather than to deal with the long-term tax burden. As expected, she confirmed once more that her plans for helping people with their energy bills would come this week, with plenty of speculation already out there as to what those plans will look like. Perhaps the most surprising pledge was her last one: a promise to ensure fast and relatively easy treatment.
Having ruled out any serious reform of the National Health Service on the campaign trial, it’s difficult to know what this remedy could and will look like. But it does suggest, as Isabel Hardman pointed out today, that the NHS is on Truss’s mind. And no doubt a big reason for that is an ever-growing waiting list, which could see one in six residents in England waiting for treatment by the next election.
5.14pm – Truss’s three early priorities
Katy Balls writes… Liz Truss has just delivered her first speech as Prime Minister. It was a fairly short speech – just over four minutes. She set out three early priorities: 1. Get Britain working again – through tax cuts and investment 2. Deal with the energy crisis – with a plan to be announced on Thursday 3. Put the NHS on a firm footing – to make sure those who need it can get appointments. Truss said that she was confident her government would be able to ride out the coming storm and promised to focus on delivery.
5.12pm – Truss revives the ‘aspiration nation’
Isabel Hardman writes… Amazingly the ‘aspiration nation’, an old David Cameron slogan, has come back. Liz Truss has promised to transform the country into one. Given the experiences of the past few years though, the breathing reference does lead you to wonder if the current state is of a country on a ventilator.
4.54pm – Devant moi, le deluge
Steerpike writes… Oh dear. So much for those hoping that a Truss government would mean a victory for the Tory ‘dries’ over the ‘wets.’ A welcome party at the gates of Downing Street are eagerly awaiting the triumphant return of Liz Truss. There’s only one problem: the heavens have opened and the waiting MPs are now deluged. Even the new No. 10 podium has been covered up to protect it from the gods. Not the optics that the new spad team will have wanted – so much for sunlit uplands.
4.31pm – The challenge – and opportunity – of this speech for Truss
James Forsyth writes… Liz Truss is heading to Downing Street to speak to the nation. Truss, as has been pointed out many times, has the most difficult inheritance of any prime minister in a generation. But this provides an opportunity for her too. The country will be waiting to see what she has to say, people will be paying attention to politics in a way that they normally don’t. For Truss, the challenge in this speech is to go from speaking to the Tory party to the country. She needs to reassure people worried about their energy bills and set out a sense of where she intends to take the country.
4.26pm – Liz Truss’s key No. 10 appointments
Katy Balls writes… The lectern is out. Truss is due to speak shortly. While the Prime Minister is yet to reach 10 Downing Street, her aides have been settling in to the building. When it comes to the key No. 10 appointments, Truss’s new chief of staff is Mark Fullbrook – her co-campaign director – who is an experienced political consultant and ally of Tory election guru Lynton Crosby. Deputy chief of staff goes to Ruth Porter, Fullbrook’s co-chair. She is a former aide to Truss who has kept in close contact with her former boss over the years.
4.19pm – Will Truss signal an energy price freeze?
Kate Andrews writes… The suitcases are still unpacked, the wallpaper has yet to be properly assessed – but the cash is already flowing out of Liz Truss’s No. 10. Reports from Bloomberg today suggest that the new prime minister is considering a £170 billion package for an energy price ‘freeze’ to get households and businesses through the winter months; a support package that, as described by Ross Clark on Coffee House today, would be the ‘biggest welfare programme in British history’. Don’t expect any official energy announcement in her first speech from the steps of No. 10, but look for clues. Most notably, to what extent Truss ties herself to the promises she made on the leadership campaign trail, not least ruling out an energy price freeze, which throws out price signalling and would further distort the energy market.
3.58pm – The Truss has landed
Liz Truss’s plane has landed at RAF Northolt.
3.18pm – Truss planning a short speech
Katy Balls writes… The Queen has formally appointed Liz Truss as Prime Minister. Now Truss is on a flight back to Westminster where she is due to give a short address at 10 Downing Street at 4pm. The suggestion from her allies is that this will be a fairly short speech – though it has been updated as the day has gone on – before she gets to work forming her government. Many of the appointments – if not all – have been pre agreed so it ought to be a fairly snappy process once it gets underway.
3.15pm – Therese Coffey arrives at No. 10
Therese Coffey, the current work and pensions secretary, has arrived at No. 10 before Truss’s new cabinet is announced. Coffey is a longtime ally of Truss and is widely tipped to become both health secretary and deputy PM in the newly formed government.
2.40pm – Liz Truss leaves for London
Liz Truss’s plane has left Aberdeen airport and is now heading back to London. She will land at RAF Northolt and then travel to No. 10 for her first speech as Prime Minister.
1pm – The Queen appoints Truss PM
Buckingham Palace has confirmed that Liz Truss has been asked by the Queen to form a new government. Statement below:
The Queen received in Audience The Right Honourable Elizabeth Truss MP today and requested her to form a new Administration. Ms Truss accepted Her Majesty’s offer and kissed hands upon her appointment as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury.
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