Ben Wallace – defence
Ben Wallace That he managed to stay in the Cabinet during the Boris Johnson-Truss transition and keep the job he loves is testament to the perception that Wallace has been an effective minister and to his shrewd handling of succession politics. When Johnson was ousted, many assumed that Wallace would make his own bid to become the new leader. He didn’t, lying low and getting on with his job, emerging in late July to support Truss – by which time her victory seemed assured. Wallace, MP for Wyre and Preston North in Lancashire since 2010, held a series of junior frontbench posts before Johnson made the former Scots Guards officer his defense secretary when he took over in No 10 in 2019. His profile was boosted during last summer’s chaotic evacuation of Kabul, when his apparent irritation with the efforts of vacationing foreign secretary Dominic Raab saw him instead portrayed as efficient and diligent.
Brandon Lewis – Minister for Justice and Lord Chancellor
Brandon Lewis A fellow Norfolk MP with Truss – he has represented Great Yarmouth since 2010 – Lewis is a survivor minister who has stayed at the front since the David Cameron era, holding on to his position through a mixture of hard work, with a gentle way in the broadcast rounds, and above all faith. Starting with a junior ministerial post in the then communities department in 2012, Lewis has held roles in the Home Office and Cabinet before being tapped by Johnson to become Northern Ireland secretary in 2020, despite representing an area roughly east of Belfast. you can take. While he has tried conscientiously and forcefully to correct the implications of his Brexit-based Northern Ireland policy, Lewis’s most impressive moment came when he openly told parliaments that the Johnson government’s plan to unilaterally amend the Brexit deal with the EU ” breaks international law in a very specific and limited way.” That could be slightly uncomfortable for the government’s new chief legal adviser, who qualified as a barrister but spent most of his pre-Commons career in business.
Nadhim Zahawi – Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Minister for Intergovernmental Relations and Minister for Equality
Nadhim Zahawi Zahawi’s recent tenure in the top tier of cabinet posts, first as education secretary and his recent weeks as Johnson’s chancellor, derives largely from his successful stint as health secretary in charge of Covid vaccines. Zahawi was credited with the success of the original jabs program, which for a time gave Johnson a noticeable boost in the polls. He is a regular choice to go on radio and television, where he has the ability to sound reasonable while saying little. The attempt to succeed Johnson went very badly, resulting in Zahawi being eliminated in the first round of MP voting and a slightly late decision to support Truss, which was not enough to keep him at the top. The MP for the ultra-safe Conservative seat of Stratford-on-Avon since 2010, Zahawi was born in Baghdad to Kurdish parents who left Iraq for the UK when he was nine. One of the richest MPs in the Commons, he co-founded pollster YouGov, with interests in other sectors including oil before becoming a minister.
Penny Mordaunt – leader of the Commons
Penny Mordant The star of the early days of the Tory leadership contest, where she came second in every round of MP voting except the crucial final, Mordaunt may well have hoped for a more prominent role than Commons leader. A relative veteran in modern Tory circles – an MP since 2010 and at the front for eight years – Mordaunt has long been talked about as a potential leader-in-waiting and is popular with Tory members, but was pushed out by Truss and is now in danger of being sidelined figure. Mordaunt is a strong Brexiter who is socially liberal by modern Conservative standards, something that seemed to count against her in the leadership race. She has strong military ties and a storied history, having spent time as a teenager helping to raise her younger brother after their mother’s death. At the front he had a varied career, with ministerial posts including international development and then defense ministers, before moving into a junior commercial role. Her boss there was Anne-Marie Trevelyan, who during the leadership race had railed about Mordaunt’s work ethic, which could make for some awkward moments at the cabinet table.
Jake Berry – minister without portfolio/party chair
Jake Berry The ministerial title simply means that the Rossendale and Darwen MP can sit in the cabinet, as party chairman in a non-government political role. Berry’s job will be to feed back the views of members and other MPs to Truss. Berry chairs Tory MPs’ Northern Inquiry Group and was minister for ‘Northern Power’ under Johnson and Theresa May. Under Truss she will be the key voice not only on the “red wall” but also on broader leveling issues, on which she appears more lukewarm than her predecessor. In what is largely a loyalist cabinet, Berry will have an important role for Truss if he is to keep an already somewhat fractured parliamentary party behind her. As party chairman he will hope to do better than Oliver Dowden, Johnson’s handpicked man, who resigned after humiliating election defeats.
Alok Sharma – President Cop26
Alok Sharma One of the few survivors to hold the same cabinet role – but mostly because the job, in which Sharma oversaw the climate conference in Glasgow last November, will end when the next such annual event, Cop27, takes place in Egypt In November. His future at the top level would seem uncertain from then on.
Jacob Rees-Mogg – business, energy and industrial strategy
One of the most prominent – if not always the most popular – ministers of recent years, Rees-Mogg is another Conservative whose long-standing advocacy of lower taxes and a smaller state dovetails with Truss beliefs. He has been rewarded with a key portfolio, one that takes the climate crisis into account, to the dismay of green groups given his track record of skepticism in this area. Jacob Rees-Mogg While the 53-year-old Old Etonian feels a long-term government role, he joined Johnson’s frontbench only in 2019, becoming leader of the Commons, most recently taking the much-hyped title of minister for Brexit opportunities and government efficiency. , in the Office of the Council of Ministers. When he first rose to prominence, Rees-Mogg’s almost over-the-top demeanor, strong views on Brexit and dry humor led some to consider him a possible future prime minister, the short-lived phenomenon known as ‘Moggmentum’. However, closer scrutiny shattered those aspirations, with Rees-Mogg criticized for a number of incidents, including being pictured almost lying on a Commons bench as he listened to an opposition speech, and particularly clumsy comments about the Grenfell Tower disaster .
Simon Clarke – communities and uploading
Simon Clarke From Trass’ slightly misguided launch of her media campaign the morning after she was confirmed as prime minister, the former chief secretary to the Treasury has been one of her most loyal and visible supporters – she is 6ft 7in. He has also been rewarded with a key ministry and must implement what Truss called a “conservative raise,” which many observers see as meaning a leveling off using far less government funding. Part of the Conservative intake in 2017, Clark took the Middlesbrough seat in Cleveland South and East from Labour, taking up his first ministerial role, again at the Treasury, just two years later. The suave former barrister was regularly flown in under Johnson for morning ministerial shows, managing to be fiercely loyal without coming across as overly servile. Clarke was a staunch supporter of Johnson, calling him a “wonderful prime minister”, but when the succession process began he immediately backed Truss and became a key member of her support group of MPs.
Badenoch Chemistry – International Trade
Kemi Badenoch Badenoch fell some way short of winning the 2022 leadership contest, but many MPs believe the highly energetic, pragmatic and ideologically confident former minister will be one of the key players the next time the Conservatives look for a new leader. MP for Saffron Walden in Essex only since 2017, Badenoch has achieved some prominence beyond parliament, mainly through her energetic embrace of culture-war issues and her occasionally combative approach, including with some journalists. She had reportedly hoped to become education secretary, but Truss gave her a less public role where her approach could cause less controversy. Opinions among MPs may be similarly mixed, but Badenoch’s supporters speak enthusiastically of her political zeal, her willingness to think big and her ability to speak in a way that broadly resembles a normal person and not with a robotic minister.
Chloe Smith – work and pensions
Chloe Smith Smith is taking on her first Cabinet-level role – and one of her most challenging – but has been a fixture in the lower echelons of government, seemingly forever on the Commons mission of answering ministerial questions. Another East of England MP in Truss’ cabinet, she has represented Norwich North since winning the seat from Labor in a by-election in 2009, aged just 27. The former management adviser has been at the front for a year and has worked in five departments, including overseeing the controversial introduction of compulsory voter ID. Most recently he worked under Coffey at the Department for Work and…
