Jake Berry, chairman of Tory MPs’ Northern Inquiry Group, will be appointed chairman of the Conservative Party. He will take over from Andrew Stephenson, who has been in the role for just two months, and his co-chairman Ben Elliot. Mr Elliott, a businessman appointed by Johnson in 2019, resigned from his post on Monday. He has seen a huge increase in donations to the party from wealthy individuals, but has also faced questions about his business interests and fundraising methods. Alistair Jack, the Scottish minister, is set to remain in his post, while Alok Sharma expects to remain in the cabinet as President for COP26, as he will be in that role until November. News that Lord Forrest, a former Cabinet minister, will be out of government will disappoint members of the Conservative Party, with whom he is hugely popular after playing a key role in securing Boris Johnson’s deal with the EU for Brexit. He resigned from Johnson’s cabinet in December last year after criticizing his stance on the Northern Ireland Protocol and what he saw as his failure to seize the opportunities of Brexit. Despite the negotiating skills that could have made him a candidate for Northern Ireland minister, he was not offered the role and is currently playing no part in efforts to resolve the dispute with Brussels over the Northern Ireland Protocol. Lord Frost told friends he had “no hard feelings” over his failure to land a Cabinet post and would continue to support Ms Truss in any way he could. Having won the Tory leadership race on Monday, Ms Truss will announce her cabinet on Tuesday after being formally appointed by the Queen at Balmoral.
