Grant Shapps named Home Secretary – 2 DAYS after saying Liz Truss unlikely to survive

Earlier this week, the former Transport Secretary, who was sacked by Liz Truss on her first day in office, said that the PM’s survival would be as difficult as threading the eye of a needle in the dark

Grant Shapps – pictured arriving at No10 – voiced doubts about whether the PM would survive just two days ago (

Image: PA)

Grant Shapps has been named the new Home Secretary – just TWO DAYS after saying Liz Truss remaining in power would be like “threading the eye of a needle with the lights off”.

Mr Shapps, who the PM sacked within hours of taking office last month, takes over after Suella Braverman left the role this afternoon.

On Monday, the influential Tory MP told podcaster Matt Forde that he thought the PM was unlikely to survive.

He also claimed that her replacement could be appointed within just a week if a leadership contest was triggered.

Mr Shapps told an audience at the Duchess Theatre in central London: “She needs to thread the eye of a needle with the lights off, it’s that difficult.”

It is the latest shake-up in the soap opera the government has descended into – with Ms Truss already replacing Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng following their botched mini-Budget.

Mr Shapps’s appointment follows that of Jeremy Hunt, bolstering the centre-right’s claim to be in control of the government.

Suella Braverman has departed as Home Secretary after less than 50 days in office (

Image:

PA)

Mr Shapps – who briefly stood for Tory leadership in the summer – said earlier this week that if a leadership race is triggered, it can’t go out to members in a nationwide tour again.

“The country needs governing, if the leader needs changing that needs to be decided by MPs, it would take a week,” he said – adding that lengthy campaigns should be limited to opposition parties.

Parties in government need to be able to decide on a leader much faster, Mr Shapps urged, with MPs empowered to make the choice.

“I think it’s a system that by and large has served the party well, but the problem is when you’re in power and while there are huge national issues going on, spending weeks going around the country just doesn’t work,” he said.

“That’s something for the opposition.”

Mr Shapps is no stranger to controversy, as it previously emerged he had used aliases including Michael Green during his business career

He told the Political Party podcast that “direct” Ms Truss said he had been a competent secretary of state and one of the cabinet’s best media performers.

But after summoning him to be sacked, Mr Shapps said the Prime Minister told him: “But you didn’t support me, so there’s no room at the inn.”

A brief statement from Number 10 said: “The King has been pleased to approve the appointment of the Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP as Secretary of State for the Home Department.”

Mr Shapps had previously been named as a potential caretaker leader if Ms Truss is given the boot.

In an extraordinary intervention, he blasted the mini-Budget during the Tory party conference, writing in The Times: “This politically tin-eared cut, not even a huge revenue raiser and hardly a priority on the prime ministerial to-do list, has managed to alienate almost everyone, from a large section of the Tory parliamentary party taken by surprise to the City traders who will actually benefit.”

He called on the government not to ignore calls from the public and the markets to “change course”, stating: “As Tory MPs we have to explain all this to worried constituents, who are already making their feelings known in opinion polls.”

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The new Home Secretary is no stranger to controversy.

It emerged that he had used the names Michael Green, Corinne Stockheath and Sebastian Fox during his business career, and in February 2015 declared: “I don’t have a second job and have never had a second job while being an MP. End of story.”

When it emerged that he had a second job after being elected, he said he had “over-firmly denied” having a second job.

He served as Tory party chairman under David Cameron from 2012 to 2015, and briefly as International Development Secretary in 2015.

Mr Shapps returned to the cabinet in 2019, when he was appointed Transport Secretary by Boris Johnson, having headed his leadership campaign.

His spell in the post saw escalating industrial disputes result in a summer of chaos, with huge walkouts over pay and conditions causing months of disruptions.

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