Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced a new-look cabinet and has appointed a new Tory party chairman.
Number 10 said the Whitehall shake-up, including the creation of four new departments, will ‘focus teams on the issues that will build a better future for our children and grandchildren’.
Mr Sunak has been looking for a new party chairman for over a week, after the sacking of Nadhim Zahawi.
It was announced this morning that Grant Shapps, will take up a new role as energy security secretary, while Kemi Badenoch will become the new business and trade secretary.
The new Tory party chairman will be Greg Hands, who has been an MP for Chelsea and Fulham, previously Hammersmith and Fulham, since 2005.
The former trade policy minister Mr Hands, takes over the role that will involve leading the Tories through the next election.
Number 10 confirmed Mr Shapps will be made energy security and net zero secretary in the newly created department.
The role is said to be dedicated to securing the UK’s ‘long-term energy supply, bringing down bills and halving inflation’.
Downing Street said that the issues of net zero and energy security are linked.
Asked if the creation of a new department for energy security and Net Zero would signal greater prioritisation of net zero, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘I think the public will judge us by our actions and our continued approach on net zero.
‘We do think it’s right to more clearly pull out the Government’s focus on that linkage to long-term energy security because the two very much go together.
‘Seeking to achieve net zero is, in part, obviously about the importance of keeping 1.5C alive, but equally, it’s about making sure we have energy security, whether that’s offshore wind or nuclear.’
Explaining the reason for the new energy department, the PM said: ‘For too long there hasn’t been enough forward planning on this, whether that’s on building new nuclear or other issues.
‘Having a new department solely focused on this, led by Grant Shapps, is a way of addressing these long-standing challenges.’
The spokesman said the Whitehall shake-up would mean ‘greater focus, dedicated leadership and better-targeted resources to deliver on our promises’ of halving inflation, growing the economy, reducing debt, cutting hospital waiting lists and stopping small boats carrying migrants across the English Channel.
Former Tory leadership contender Ms Badenoch will move from international trade secretary to business and trade secretary, taking over part of the job Mr Shapps leaves vacant and maintaining her previous role.
Downing Street said that the creation of a new department for business and trade made sense and the two issues ‘naturally go together’.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘This is a recognition, I think that’s been put forward from a number of individuals, that business and trade naturally go together and that when you’re planning trade deals to benefit UK business it makes sense to link them together under one secretary of state so there’s a clearer lines of responsibility.’
Ms Badenoch will remain president of the board of trade and minister for women and equalities.
Culture secretary Michelle Donelan is the new secretary for science, innovation and technology, another newly formed department.
Mr Sunak Tweeted after the announcement: ‘The Government needs to reflect the priorities of the British people and be designed to deliver for them.
‘These changes will focus teams on the issues that will build a better future for our children & grandchildren.’
I am excited to be asked by @rishisunak to be Chairman of the @conservatives
I joined the Party in 1986 – a ward chairman in 1992, a councillor in 1998, a Group Leader in 1999, an MP in 2005, a Minister in 2011 – an honour to chair it in 2023!
The work starts right away. pic.twitter.com/eMxGSS2uNo
— Greg Hands (@GregHands) February 7, 2023
The re-shuffle continued with the appointment of Graham Stuart as minister in the new department for energy security and Net Zero, George Freeman as minister in the department for science, innovation and technology, and Nigel Huddleston as a minister in the department for business and trade.
Nusrat Ghani becomes a minister jointly in the business and trade department and cabinet.
Andrew Bowie joins the Energy and Net Zero Department as parliamentary under secretary of state, while Paul Scully and Kevin Hollinrake take on the same role in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and the Department for Business and Trade, respectively.
Stuart Andrew has been named parliamentary under secretary of state in the new culture department and minister for equalities in the Department for Business and Trade.
Maria Caulfield becomes minister for women in the Business and Trade Department, while staying on as parliamentary under secretary of state in the Health Department.
Sunak had been looking for a new party chair after Mr Zahawi was sacked following an ethics inquiry into the handling of his tax affairs, which found a ‘serious breach’ of the ministerial code.
During his Tory leadership campaign in the summer of 2022, Mr Sunak pledged to re-establish a Department of Energy in order to secure the future of the UK’s energy supply.
The original Department of Energy and Climate Change was disbanded in 2016.
But environmental campaign group Greenpeace warned that Rishi Sunak’s expected creation of a new energy department may not address the climate crisis.
Greenpeace UK’s director of policy Dr Doug Parr said: ‘As climate disasters intensify, energy costs spiral and the world continues to sink under rising seas, without other fundamental reforms, re-establishing a department for energy will be as helpful as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
‘It’s government policy and underinvestment that is holding back real action on the climate and energy crises, not the departments or ministers in place.
‘Unless the new-look department for energy is given the freedom and funding to rapidly scale up renewable energy production – both offshore and on – to sure up domestic supply, as well as roll out a nationwide scheme to insulate the tens of millions of energy-wasting homes across the country, what’s the point?’
Shadow climate secretary Ed Miliband said that it looked like Rishi Sunak was now admitting that the decision to get rid of the Department of Energy in 2016 was a mistake.
‘So seven years after the disastrous decision to abolish the Department of Energy, the Conservatives now admit they got it wrong, but a rearranging of deckchairs on the sinking Titanic of failed Conservative energy policy will not rescue the country,’ the Labour MP tweeted.
‘Britain’s energy bills are too high and our system too weak because of years of disastrous decisions: the ongoing onshore wind ban, blocking of solar, slashing of energy efficiency, disastrous regulation of the retail market and an unlawful net zero plan. All this must change.’
The potential overhaul could be ‘relatively limited’, with a ‘domino’ effect caused by the naming of a successor for Mr Zahawi, The Times reported, citing a Government source.
Dominic Raab survived the re-huffle as Mr Sunak has indicated he will wait for the outcome of an inquiry into the Deputy Prime Minister’s conduct before taking any action.
Mr Raab, who is also the Justice Secretary, is being investigated by senior lawyer Adam Tolley KC over bullying allegations – with dozens of officials thought to be involved in eight formal complaints. Mr Raab has denied the bullying allegations.
Development minister Andrew Mitchell, told Times Radio: ‘I’m certainly not expecting to be called upon to do that.
‘But one should always try to do what the Prime Minister wants you to do.’
Treasury minister Andrew Griffiths would not be drawn on the prospect of breaking up the business department.
‘If the Prime Minister has got something to say on how to reorganise government then we’ll have to wait and see that,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Asked if it was a mistake to disband the Department of Energy and Climate Change in 2016, he said he joined government from a business background.
‘To me, it is all about outcomes, it is not about process. Obviously if there are ways of streamlining the way this Government can deliver on the people’s priorities, then that’s important.’
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