Liz Truss installs allies in key cabinet roles

Liz Truss has rewarded key allies with top jobs in a major reshuffle hours after taking over from Boris Johnson as prime minister.

Kwasi Kwarteng is in as chancellor, James Cleverly is foreign secretary and Suella Braverman takes over from Priti Patel as home secretary.

One of Ms Truss’s closest friends, Therese Coffey, is the new health secretary and deputy prime minister.

Big names losing their place in the Cabinet include Dominic Raab.

Former transport secretary Grant Shapps and former health secretary Steve Barclay – who like Mr Raab supported Mr Truss’s defeated rival Rishi Sunak in the Tory leadership contest – are also returning to the backbenches.

Nadine Dorries, who also backed Ms Truss, said she had been asked by the new PM to stay on as culture secretary but had decided to quit frontline politics.

Wendy Morton is put in charge of parliamentary discipline, becoming the first female Conservative chief whip.

Former International Trade Secretary Penny Mordaunt has been made Leader of the House of Commons, the job that ensures the government’s legislation passes through Parliament.

She and Ms Truss were engaged in a bitter battle to make it to the final two of the Tory leadership contest, however Ms Mordaunt later threw her support behind her one-time rival.

Nadhim Zahawi leaves his job as chancellor to become minister for intergovernmental relations and equalities.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace is one of the few senior minister to retain his job as defence secretary, where he’s earned plaudits in his response to the conflict in Ukraine.

Ms Truss was earlier appointed the 56th prime minister of the UK by the Queen, in a ceremony at Balmoral.

She returned to a rain-lashed Downing Street, where in a short speech she vowed to grow the economy through tax cuts and reform; take action to deal with energy bills and put the health service on “a firm footing”.

Mr Sunak, the former chancellor whose resignation helped trigger the downfall of Boris Johnson, had already made it clear he did not expect to be offered a new job.

But his supporters had urged Ms Truss to appoint an “inclusive” cabinet and not simply surround herself with loyalists.

On Wednesday, she will face her first Parliamentary test in her new job when she faces Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions.