Liz Truss' Cabinet: Kwasi Kwarteng leads key appointments as PM names new-look team

Liz Truss' Cabinet: Kwasi Kwarteng leads key appointments as PM names new-look team
Liz Truss first speech in full
Tom Evans

By Tom Evans


Published: 06/09/2022

- 19:11

Updated: 07/09/2022

- 18:52

Liz Truss has set about naming her Cabinet after taking over as Prime Minister on Tuesday

Prime Minister Liz Truss has made a string of Cabinet appointments after the Queen invited her to form a government on Tuesday.

It comes after Boris Johnson made his final Downing Street speech as PM before tendering his resignation to the monarch at Balmoral Castle.


And, after her first PMQs as party leader, she is cracking on with the job of governing.

So far, the Truss Cabinet is made up of:

Kwasi Kwarteng (Chancellor of the Exchequer)

Thérèse Coffey (Health Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister)

James Cleverly (Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs)

Suella Braverman (Secretary of State for the Home Department)

Wendy Morton MP (Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury - Chief Whip)

Ben Wallace MP (re-appointed Secretary of State for Defence)

Brandon Lewis CBE MP (Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice)

Nadhim Zahawi MP (Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Minister for Intergovernmental Relations and Minister for Equalities)

Penny Mordaunt MP (Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons)

Lord True CBE (Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords)

Jake Berry MP (Minister without Portfolio)

Alok Sharma MP (re-appointed as Cop26 President)

New Prime Minister Liz Truss makes a speech outside 10 Downing Street.
New Prime Minister Liz Truss makes a speech outside 10 Downing Street.
Stefan Rousseau

Jacob Rees-Mogg MP (Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy)

Simon Clarke MP (Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

Kemi Badenoch MP (Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade)

Chloe Smith MP (Secretary of State for Work and Pensions)

Kit Malthouse MP (Secretary of State for Education)

Ranil Jayawardena MP (Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP (Secretary of State for Transport)

Michelle Donelan MP (Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)

Chris Heaton-Harris MP (Secretary of State for Northern Ireland)

Alister Jack MP (re-appointed Secretary of State for Scotland)

Sir Robert Buckland KBE QC MP (re-appointed as Secretary of State for Wales)

Chris Philp MP (Chief Secretary to the Treasury)

Michael Ellis QC MP (Attorney General)

Edward Argar MP (Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office)

Robert Jenrick (Minister in the Department of Health and Social Care)

Victoria Prentis (Minister in the Department for Work and Pensions)

Vicky Ford MP (Minister of State - Minister for Development - in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

Will Quince (Minister in the Department of Health and Social Care)

Nusrat Ghani (Minister in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy)

Mark Spencer (Minister in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Tom Tugendhat MBE MP (Minister of State - Minister for Security - in the Home Department)

James Heappey MP (re-appointed as a Minister of State in the Ministry of Defence and will be Minister for the Armed Forces and Veterans and will attend Cabinet)

Graham Stuart MP (Minister of State for Climate in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy)

New Prime Minister Liz Truss and her husband Hugh O'Leary
New Prime Minister Liz Truss and her husband Hugh O'Leary
Kirsty O'Connor

Jake Berry MP has been appointed Conservative Party Chairman.

Michael Tomlinson has been made Solicitor General, Rachel Maclean has been appointed to the Ministry of Justice and Julia Lopez in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

Jesse Norman and Leo Docherty have been given ministerial roles in the Foreign Office while Tom Pursglove and Jeremy Quin have Home Office jobs.

Jackie Doyle-Price takes up a role in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy while Conor Burns goes to the Department for International Trade.

While Alec Shelbrooke has been handed a post in the Ministry of Defence while James Duddridge has got a role in the Department for International Trade.

Kelly Tolhurst and Steve Baker have been made ministers in the Department for Education and the Northern Ireland Office, respectively.

Baroness Williams of Trafford has been made Chief Whip in the Lords.

Nusrat Ghani has been made a minister in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Kevin Foster has also been given a role in the Department for Transport.

Dominic Raab, Grant Shapps and Steve Barclay all shared the news that they had lost their Cabinet jobs.

Mr Raab tweeted: “Thanks to the brilliant MoJ (Ministry of Justice) team for all their hard work over the last year.

“Good luck to the new PM and her team. I look forward to supporting the Government from the backbenches."

Mr Shapps also tweeted: "It has been a privilege to serve as Transport Secretary; a job I loved.

“Now I look forward to being a strong, independent voice on the backbenches, developing policies that will further the Conservative cause and the interests of my constituents in Welwyn Hatfield.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Johnson appeared to drop his clearest hint yet that he plans to one day return to power.

In his farewell speech, he said: “On the subject of bouncing around in future careers, let me say that I am now like one of those booster rockets that has fulfilled its function.

“I will now be gently re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down invisibly in some remote and obscure corner of the Pacific.

“Like Cincinnatus, I am returning to my plough and I will be offering this Government nothing but the most fervent support.”

Cincinnatus was a Roman statesman who became a legendary figure of virtue by the time of the late Republic, before his death in 430 BC.

An invasion is said to have prompted his fellow citizens to call for his leadership and he "came from his plough" to assume control of the state.

After achieving a decisive 16-day victory, he relinquished power and returned to his farm.

His success and immediate resignation has often been cited as an example of outstanding leadership.

But perhaps more importantly in the context of Mr Johnson, Cincinnatus was called back to power by patricians to suppress an uprising of plebeians under Spurius Maelius.

He then ruled for a second time as Roman dictator, after which he is said to have ceded power once again.

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