Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has appointed Grant Shapps to replace Ben Wallace as defence secretary and has promoted Claire Coutinho to take over from Shapps as secretary of state for energy security and net zero.
Mr. Shapps—who is taking on his fifth Cabinet role in 12 months—is seen as a safe pair of hands by Mr. Sunak and even the shadow attorney general, Emily Thornberry, described him as a “talented politician.”
Mr. Shapps said he was “honoured” to be given the role of defence secretary and promised to maintain, “the UK’s support for Ukraine in their fight against Putin’s barbaric invasion.”
Mr. Wallace, 53, announced last month he would be quitting the Cabinet and not standing at the next general election. His constituency of Wyre and Preston North will disappear at the next election and he does not intend to look for another seat.
In his resignation letter Mr. Wallace, a former army officer, wrote to Mr. Sunak and said, “I know you agree with me that we must not return to the days where defence was viewed as a discretionary spend by government and savings were achieved by hollowing out.”
“I genuinely believe that over the next decade, the world will get more insecure and more unstable. We both share the belief that now is the time to invest,” he added.
Mr. Sunak praised Mr. Wallace for having “served our country with distinction.”
Shadow defence secretary John Healey wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: “The first duty of any government is to keep our country safe and I will always work with the new defence secretary on this basis, especially on Ukraine.”
“But after 13 years of Tory defence failures, a change at the top will not change this record,” he added.
Mr. Shapps’s old job has gone to Claire Coutinho, a 38-year-old former investment banker who only entered Parliament in 2019 as MP for East Surrey.
Ms. Coutinho—whose family are Christians from the Indian state of Goa—has been promoted from education minister.
Mr. Sunak had been expected to launch a full reshuffle before the Conservative Party conference in October but apart from the appointment of Mr. Shapps and Ms. Coutinho he has only made one other change, giving backbencher David Johnston his first ministerial role, in the Department for Education.
Ed Miliband Says Shapps was ‘Disaster’ as Energy Secretary
Ed Miliband, the shadow climate change and net zero secretary, congratulated Ms. Coutinho on her appointment but, writing on X, said: “But it speaks volumes about the failures of Tory policy that we are now onto the sixth secretary of state since 2019. Reshuffling of the deckchairs will not deliver the proper energy policy Britain needs.”He said, “The new energy secretary needs to recognise that Grant Shapps’ approach has been a disaster and distance the government from it.”
“Shapps’ opposition to clean, home-grown power has damaged Britain’s energy security, and his attempt to have a culture war has alarmed businesses,” added Mr. Miliband, who was the leader of the Labour Party between 2010 and 2015.
Ms. Thornberry said: “It really doesn’t matter how many new jobs Rishi Sunak gives to his friends. It’s still just moving the deckchairs. They’re still a sinking ship.”
The government also announced it had appointed the former chief executive of UK Music, Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, as Mr. Sunak’s director of strategy.
It is a key appointment, with a general election possibly no more than 16 months away.
Mr. Njoku-Goodwin had been running UK Music, which represents the collective interests of the British music industry, since September 2020 and helped steer it through the pandemic, which had a catastrophic effect on live music.
He previously held a number of government jobs, including acting as an adviser to former Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
UK Music chairman, Lord Watson, said: “Over his three years Jamie has been a stellar success and I can fully understand why the prime minister would want him in a very senior Downing Street role. I’m sure he will deploy his considerable skills for the country in the same way he has for the music industry.”
