Boris Johnson has carried out a hurried mini-reshuffle of his deckchairs to steady the ship of his leadership.
The Prime Minister gave some men (and a couple of women) promotions in what was swiftly dubbed a "heshuffle" of loyalists.
It was triggered after Cabinet minister Steve Barclay became No10 Chief of Staff due to an exodus of five top staffers from No10, and the Met Police launching an investigation into 12 rule-busting parties.
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster handed some of his responsibilities to Michael Ellis, Heather Wheeler and Jacob Rees-Mogg after previous Chiefs of Staff said he could not do three jobs at once.
Jacob Rees Mogg was sacked as Commons leader but given a £35,825 pay rise as he became minister for ' Brexit opportunities and government efficiencies'. Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said: "Who said dull men don't fail upwards? #heshuffle".
Meanwhile, both Chief Whip Mark Spencer and his Deputy Stuart Andrew were sacked after months of failure to crush Tory revolts and the Owen Paterson affair. But both kept top jobs, despite Mr Spencer facing an investigation.
Mr Spencer replaces Mr Rees Mogg as Commons leader and Tory MP Chris Heaton Harris will be only the PM's second Chief Whip since he entered No10.
Stuart Andrew was promoted from Deputy Chief Whip to Housing Minister, serving in Michael Gove's Levelling Up Department. He will be the Tories' 11 Housing Minister in 12 years.
More than a dozen mutinous Tory MPs have now publicly called for the PM to resign - but the true number who want him to go is thought to be far higher.
Senior backbencher Sir Bernard Jenkin blasted: "He's got to sort this out, we are not interested in the optics, in some impression of a reset... we are looking for a change in the capability and the character of the Government."
Downing Street came under more fire over its "reset" after it emerged that Mr Johnson’s new spin chief Guto Harri asked if the PM’s chief of staff could “nudge” ministers on behalf of controversial Chinese tech giant Huawei.
Here are the new appointments in full.
Chris Heaton-Harris: Chief Whip
Chris Heaton-Harris, an ultra-loyalist who was a key member of the shadow whipping operation that has rallied round Mr Johnson in recent weeks, was appointed chief whip.
In the MP for Daventry and Transport Minister, the PM has chosen a self-professed "fierce Eurosceptic" and a former minister of Theresa May's administration.
The 54-year-old was accused of "McCarthyism" when he wrote to professors involved in teaching European affairs asking them to disclose what they were teaching “with particular reference to Brexit ”.
Read more about him here.
Jacob Rees-Mogg: Brexit Opportunities Minister
Jacob Rees-Mogg has been appointed minister for Brexit Opportunities as Boris Johnson tries to shore up his premiership.
The top Tory, who has also been given responsibility for "government efficiency", previously said that the "overwhelming opportunity of Brexit is over the next 50 years."
To avoid it being seen as a demotion, Boris Johnson said he'd stay in the Cabinet. He also gets a £35,825 pay rise as Ministers of State are paid more than the Leader of the Commons.
The son of a former Times newspaper editor amassed a vast fortune through his City firm Somerset Capital Management.
Through the years Mr Rees-Mogg raised his profile - carefully crafted with double-breasted suits and an LBC show - by being a supposedly old-fashioned English eccentric.
But he has had a string of gaffes including lying near-horizontal in a Commons debate, and once claiming the huge rise of food banks is "rather uplifting".
Of free university tuition he once said: “I loathe this idea that we’ve got to give baubles to young people. I think it is so desperately condescending." One senior Tory told the Mirror: "Jacob would never be in the Cabinet under any other Prime Minister."
He has six eccentrically-named children with his aristocrat wife Helena, whose ancestors include Charles I advisor Thomas Wentworth and former Prime Minister Charles Watson-Wentworth. A painting of his horse hangs in the National Gallery.
Committed Catholic Mr Rees-Mogg is opposed gay marriage and opposed to abortion, even for women who have been raped.
Mark Spencer: Leader of the Commons
The Prime Minister moved chief whip Mark Spencer sideways to the role of Commons Leader, which has responsibility for upholding standards across the House.
But some MPs were deeply concerned that Mr Spencer has been given the job when he is under investigation over racism claims made by Tory MP Nus Ghani, and Tory MPs have complained to Scotland Yard about the behaviour of the whips' office.
Ms Nusrat told The Sunday Times a Government whip told her that her “Muslimness” had been raised as an issue during the cabinet reshuffle. Mr Spencer posted on Twitter to identify himself, but denied the substance of the allegation.
Labour's Angela Rayner wrote to the Cabinet Office earlier today to demand a status update on the probe, two weeks since it was launched.
Mark Spencer is the MP for Sherwood, near Nottingham, where his family have lived for four generations. The state-educated politician qualified not at Oxford or Cambridge but Shuttleworth Agricultural College in Bedfordshire.
He joined his family's farming business employing about 50 people growing potatoes, vegetables and free range eggs and selling them at a farm shop. It includes a garden centre and a maze made out of maize.
In 2015 he reportedly suggested anti-terror powers could be used against Christian teachers who try to tell students gay marriage is wrong. He prompted fury in the same year by suggesting a "dying" benefit claimant, sanctioned after he turned up four minutes late, should "learn the discipline of timekeeping".
Stuart Andrew: Housing Minister
Boris Johnson has appointed England's 11th housing minister in just 12 years - and he is a landlord who voted down a bid to make all rented homes "fit for human habitation".
Deputy Chief Whip Stuart Andrew was moved to Housing Minister as part of a clearout of the whips' office.
The current Housing Minister, Chris Pincher, was shunted aside, and was thought to be headed to Deputy Chief Whip. Housing campaigners have previously reacted with dismay at the constant churn of different ministers while England faces a housing crisis.
Mr Andrew faces a bitter battle with the Tory grassroots as he and Housing Secretary Michael Gove rework controversial plans to tear up the planning system. Mr Gove shelved the plans to split areas into development loans and they're being examined again.
He will be in charge of meeting the target to build 300,000 homes a year. A post on Mr Andrew's website declares "Save Our Greenbelt", opposing a plan for 70,000 houses in the next 16 years in and around Leeds.
Mr Andrew was one of 72 Tory landlords who voted against a legal bid to make all rented homes "fit for human habitation" in 2016. Ministers said it was needless red tape.
The MP for Pudsey was elected in 2010 and remained on the back benches until joining the whips' office in 2017.
Michael Ellis: Cabinet Office Minister
The Paymaster General keeps his role but also takes on some of Steve Barclay's responsibilities in the Cabinet Office.
The MP since 2010 had various junior government jobs under Theresa May before serving in the Transport Department and as Solicitor General and Attorney General under Boris Johnson.
The QC from Northampton was a criminal barrister for 17 years and personally oversaw a project to raise £100,000 for a stained glass window to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.
More recently he's become known as a human shield for Boris Johnson over Partygate, repeatedly stonewalling questions in the Commons when the PM has refused to show up.
Heather Wheeler: Cabinet Office Minister
The Boris Johnson loyalist and whip returns to government proper as a Parliamentary Secretary in the Cabinet Office, on top of her current jobs.
Elected in 2010, she shot to prominence after mounting a failed bid to replace Sir Graham Brady as chair of the backbench 1922 Committee - which oversees Tory leadership challenges.
As homelessness minister in 2019, she was forced to apologise after leaked emails showed her using 'racist' language about rough sleepers.
The Conservative MP for South Derbyshire described rough sleepers in her constituency as “the traditional type, old tinkers, knife-cutters wandering through”.
In the past the word "tinker” was typically ascribed to members of the Irish Traveller community and particularly to people who mended pans and other metal utensils. But it has long been considered offensive by Traveller and Gypsy groups.
When she was made homelessness minister she said she would resign if rough sleeping did not fall. She moved to the Foreign Office 18 months later.
In 2016 she sparked fury by tweeting a mocked-up Olympic medals table with the ‘British Empire’ at the top.
Other jobs
- James Cleverly stays in the Foreign Office but becomes Minister for Europe instead of Minister for Middle East, North Africa and North America. He was on a visit to the USA meeting senior politicians when the news broke.
- Luke Hall is made Deputy Chair of the Conservative Party.
- Wendy Morton is promoted from a junior minister to a Minister of State in the Transport Department.
