Tuesday 6 September 2022 07:08 PM Liz Truss begins to build her new Government: New PM unveils close ally Kwasi ... trends now

Liz Truss began rewarding her loyal political supporters with Cabinet jobs tonight - and threw Rishi Sunak supporters out into the political wilderness.  

Therese Coffey was the first to be unveiled, becoming Deputy Prime Minister and Health Secretary.

She is expected to be followed by Kwasi Kwarteng as Chancellor, in a pair of widely trailed appointments of close confidants to top posts.

They filled vacancies left by the Cabinet's most high profile Rishi backers. Justice Secretary and DPM Dominic Raab, transport secretary Grant Shapps and health secretary Steve Barclay were all swiftly axed this afternoon, minutes after the PM returned to London. 

Michael Gove and  Rishi Sunak himself have already confirmed they are returning to the backbenches, along with Boris supporters Priti Patel and Nadine Dorries.

Further appointments are expected throughout the evening and into tomorrow after Ms Truss vowed to create an 'aspiration nation'.

Delivering her first Downing Street speech after officially becoming Britain's 56th Prime Minister, she took to a podium outside the famous black door after returning to London from the Queen's Balmoral residence in Scotland - where the transfer of power happened.

She warned of a 'vital time for our country' and said she will deal 'hands on with the energy crisis caused by Putin's war' - hinting at the huge bailout expected within days.

The new premier said fixing the NHS and cutting taxes would be her other priorities.

Here we look at who is in the new cabinet, who is likely to be appointed and who is for the chop: 

IN 

Therese Coffey - Health Secretary / Deputy Prime Minister

Age: 50

Family: Single, no children

Education: Oxford

The karaoke and cigar-loving MP is a fellow member of the 2010 parliamentary intake whose Suffolk Coastal constituency neighbours Miss Truss's South West Norfolk seat, and they have long been allies. 

The new Prime Minister moved her from work and pensions to Health Secretary, taking over from Steve Barclay who has made little impression during just a few weeks in the role. 

But she will also have the added role of Deputy Prime Minister, a sign perhaps of how high a priority the NHS and social care will be to her administration.

She will have to tackle the huge waiting lists that have built up since Covid struck as well as the long delays for ambulances that patients are having to endure.

Sher had previously been tipped to become the first female chief whip in Tory history but has since been linked with a more senior departmental role. 

She has managed to have a quietish tenure at the DWP, seen as something of a poisoned chalice in government.

A year ago she was slammed  for belting out Time of My Life at a boozy Conservative party Conference karaoke bash hours before cutting benefit payments to six million people. 

Coffey enthusiastically belted out the 1987 power ballad from the film Dirty Dancing in a duet with fellow Will Quince - a former welfare minister.

It came as a £20-per-week Covid uplift payment was removed from UC for families across the UK.

EXPECTED 

Kwasi Kwarteng - Chancellor of the Exchequer

Age: 47

Family: Married to Harriet, a solicitor. They have a young daughter

Education: Eton College

The Business Secretary, who lives in the same Greenwich street as Ms Truss, is strongly tipped to be promoted to Chancellor and move in next to her in No11. 

A frontline supporter of her campaign, he will have the huge task of keeping the economy afloat and helping households through the cost of living squeeze. 

He will replace Nadhim Zahawi, who could move to the Cabinet Office after just two months at the helm of the Treasury as an interim chancellor following Rishi Sunak's resignation.

Mr Kwarteng's first actions will include reversing the national insurance increase and scrapping a planned rise in corporation tax.

In a sign that he expects to take over the Treasury he made an intervention yesterday that looked like a pre-emptive attempt to steady the markets. 

He used a newspaper article to say a Truss government led can afford to borrow more to give energy bills support to households and businesses but will remain responsible with the public finances.

With newspapers reporting that the new PM is preparing a package worth up to £100billion, between direct support to households and tax cuts, Mr Kwarteng, sought to reassure investors about her plans.

The pound and British government bond prices have fallen heavily in recent weeks with some investors expressing concern about Truss' plans.

'Given the severity of the crisis we face, there will need to be some fiscal loosening to help people through the winter,' Kwarteng wrote in the Financial Times. 'That is absolutely the right thing to do in these exceptionally difficult times.'

'We know households are worried, and decisive action is needed to get families and businesses through this winter and the next. They need certainty.'

Kwarteng said Britain's debt-to-gross-domestic-product ratio was lower than any other Group of Seven country except Germany 'so we do not need excessive fiscal tightening.'

But the cost-of-living support would be done in a fiscally responsible way, he said.

'Liz is committed to a lean state and, as the immediate shock subsides, we will work to reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio over time,' Kwarteng wrote in the newspaper.

Suella Braverman -  Home Secretary

Age: 42

Family: Two young children with husband Rael

Education:  Cambridge University

Ms Braverman stood against Miss Truss in the leadership contest but her 'anti-woke' stance and opposition to the European Convention on Human Rights is set to see her promoted from Attorney General to Home Secretary. 

Her main task will be to crack down on Channel crossings by illegal migrants and to make sure those who do reach England are deported to Rwanda, which current Home Secretary Priti Patel has failed to do.

Braverman's expected appointment makes it more likely the Government will seek to reset UK's relationship with Strasbourg.

During her leadership campaign in July, the attorney general said it was 'unacceptable' that a last-minute intervention by the European Court of Human Rights had scuppered the first attempt at a Rwanda deportation flight.

She said leaving the European Convention on Human Rights - and the Strasbourg court which oversees it - was required to 'take back control of our borders'.

'When people voted for Brexit, they expected us to take back control of our borders. It is unacceptable that a foreign court stopped the flight,' she said.

However, remaining a signatory to the convention is written in to the Good Friday Agreement which underpins peace in Northern Ireland, so it is unclear how this would be achieved.

Leaving the Convention was ruled out by Justice Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab when he outlined human rights reform in the new Bill of Rights earlier this year.

It is thought a final decision on Britain's membership of the convention will not be made by the new Cabinet until after the Rwanda judicial review, and a similar case next month, are complete.

James Cleverly - Foreign Secretary

Age: 53

Family: Married to Susannah Sparks with two sons

Education: Thames Valley University 

An early backer of Miss Truss's candidacy, the Education Secretary is expected to be handed her current role of Foreign Secretary. 

The pair worked together in the Foreign Office in the past year, where he was a junior minister before being moved in Boris Johnson's emergency reshuffle.

He will keep up her strong support for Ukraine and sanctions on Russia.

He would also keep up a hardline on China, with a more hawkish attitude to Beijing expected than under Mr Johnson.

But his most immediate priority is likely to be the Brexit saga over Northern Ireland, which is nowhere near being solved despite political paralysis in Ulster.

While the economy is certain to dominate the first months of the new premier's term, Johnson's successor will also have to steer the UK on the international stage in the face of Russia's war in Ukraine, an increasingly assertive China and ongoing tensions with the European Union over the aftermath of Brexit - especially in Northern Ireland.

Truss has talked tough as foreign secretary on all three main issues, though some analysts believe she may tone down her 'robust' rhetoric if she becomes leader. 

Ben Wallace -  Defence Secretary

Age: 52

Family: Married to Liza with three children

Education: Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst

The Defence Secretary,a former soldier, is one of the few members of Boris Johnson's final Cabinet expected to stay in their current role. 

He had been tipped to run for party leader after Mr Johnson resigned. But he said his focus was 'my current job and keeping this great country safe' and later publicly backed Ms Truss. 

She has pledged to increase defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP amid the ongoing war in Ukraine. 

The Defence Secretary described the Foreign Secretary as 'authentic, honest and experienced' with the 'integrity' for the top job, in the Sun.

He also told The Times Ms Truss was 'a winner not because she's a slick salesperson but because she is authentic.'

Mr Wallace hit out at the former Chancellor, questioning what would have happened if the markets crashed on the day he quit his role, according to The Sun. 

'I don't have the luxury as Defence Secretary of just walking out the door - I have roles in keeping this country safe,' he told the paper.

'And the guardian of the markets, you know, the guardian of our economy, is the chancellor.'

Jacob Rees-Mogg - Business Secretary

Age: 53

Family: Six children with Helena

Education: Eton College 

The Brexit Opportunities Minister is set to be given a department after backing Liz Truss from the off. 

After some reports linking him with a rather interesting move to Levelling-Up, the old-fashioned Old Etonian is now being linked with a move to run Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Founder of the investment fund Somerset Holdings, his experience is expected to be put to use as the new Business Secretary. 

His focus in the Cabinet Office has been on making the most of Brexit and getting civil servants back into the office, but his new role will include increasing investment in local energy production and tackling soaring prices.

Last week he announced more than 250 training courses that have been distracting civil servants from work with 'wokery' will be axed in a new crackdown.

The Cabinet Office minister claims to have got rid of 60 per cent of 'wellness, inclusion and diversity' courses and has written to Tory colleagues in charge of departments urging them to do the same.

Mr Rees-Mogg has been clear that that 'wokery' in the Civil Service is wasting employees' time when departments such as the Passport Office and DVLA face a backlog of work.

His bonfire of events and meetings include sessions called 'Find Your Mojo', 'Give Me Strength', 'Buddy to Boss', 'Tricky People', 'Wood for the Trees' and 'De-biasing Decision-making'.

Mr Rees-Mogg has also taken a hammer to course he believes were 'indoctrinating' civil servants with 'divisive ideological agendas' having led a crusade to get taxpayer-funded staff back in the office.

Brandon Lewis -  Justice Secretary 

Age: 51

Family: Married to Justine with two children

Education: University of Buckingham, King's College London

Like Miss Truss, he has been a Norfolk MP since 2010 – but he backed Nadhim Zahawi for the leadership at first. 

Mr Lewis, Northern Ireland Secretary for two years, could get his biggest role to date as Justice Secretary. 

He would replace Dominic Raab, who is certain to return to the backbenches, and would have to handle the ongoing barristers' strike.

He was at Northern Ireland throughout one of its trickiest periods, with the country's political establishment at war over the way Brexit has affected it.

While he would leave without a solution having been achieved, he is seen as having done a good job in difficult circumstances.

Simon Clarke - Levelling-Up Secretary

Age: 37

Family: Divorced, has a son with ex-wife Hannah

Education: Oxford

As Chief Secretary to the Treasury, he had been expected to back Chancellor Rishi Sunak

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