Liz Truss keeps equalities post in Boris Johnson’s reshuffle – but Esther McVey gets the boot
Esther McVey has been sacked and Liz Truss has kept her position in the cabinet reshuffle. (Getty)
Esther McVey has been sacked and Liz Truss remains on in Boris Johnson’s first major reshuffle since the 2019 election.
Truss kept her job as equalities minister, meaning she will take responsibility for reforming the Gender Recognition Act (GRA).
She also continues to hold the international trade portfolio.
After Truss was made equalities minster in September 2019, the Mail on Sunday reported that she’d been handed the portfolio to “strangle the issue” of GRA reform.
Sources rubbished the story, but the government has yet to make any announcements on improving trans rights.
Esther McVey sacked in cabinet reshuffle.
As part of the cabinet reshuffle there have been a number of high-profile sackings, including former housing minister Esther McVey.
The MP for Tatton, who last year claimed that parents should be able to withdraw their children from LGBT-inclusive relationship education, said she was “very sorry to be relieved of [her] duties” and pledged to support Johnson from the back benches.
The biggest news to come out of Downing Street was the resignation of former chancellor Sajid Javid.
Javid reportedly quit after the prime minister asked him to sack all of his advisors in order to bring the treasury under greater No. 10 control.
The Guardian quoted a source close to Javid as saying: “The chancellor said no self-respecting minister would accept those terms.”
Rishi Sunak replaces Sajid Javid as chancellor.
Replacing Javid is his former deputy Rishi Sunak, who first entered parliament in 2015.
The treasury will now reportedly share a team of special advisors with No. 10, a move designed to minimise friction between the two highest offices of government and to give Johnson greater control over the nation’s purse-strings.
Other MPs to retain their jobs include home secretary Priti Patel, foreign secretary Dominic Raab and chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove.
Less lucky were Andrea Leadsom, replaced as business secretary by Alok Sharma, and former Northern Ireland secretary Julian Smith.
