May puts faith in Midland MPs 13 get ministerial posts after PM shakes up Government across the board
THE West Midlands region is heavily represented in Theresa May’s government following her reshuffle, with 13 MPs from the region in ministerial posts.
There were new appointments to posts as whips and junior ministers, while MPs who were already in the Cabinet continue to have seats at the top level of government.
Bromsgrove MP Sajid Javid kept his job as Communities Secretary. His department was renamed the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, a change designed to show the Government is serious about providing more housing.
Staffordshire Moorlands MP Karen Bradley moved from the job of Culture Secretary to become Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
South Staffordshire MP Gavin Williamson kept his job as Defence Secretary.
Jeremy Wright, MP for Kenilworth and Southam in Warwickshire, continues as Attorney General.
While attention has focused on the Cabinet, Mrs May also made a series of changes to her team of junior ministers. It was here that a number of West Midlands MPs were bought into the Government for the first time.
Nadhim Zahawi, MP for Stratford-upon-Avon, joined the Government with a new job as an education minister.
Amanda Milling, MP for Cannock Chase, and Wendy Morton, MP for Aldridge-Brownhills, both joined the government as junior whips.
Christopher Pincher, MP for Tamworth, returned to the whips office. He was first appointed as a government whip in 2016, but resigned in November last year following allegations about his private life.
West Worcestershire MP Harriet Baldwin was promoted from the role of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defence to become a Minister of State – a more senior post – in the Foreign Office.
In a similar way, Stourbridge MP Margot James moved from the role of junior business minister to a more senior role in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Andrew Griffiths, MP for Burtonon-Trent, was moved from the whips office to become a Minister in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Worcester MP Robin Walker kept his job as a Brexit Minister, while Hereford and South Herefordshire MP Jesse Norman stayed in the same role as a transport minister.
There was also a new role, though not in the Government, for Black Country MP James Morris, who represents Halesowen and Rowley Regis. He was made a vice chairman of the Conservative Party, responsible for training and development. Nuneaton MP Marcus Jones lost his job as a local government minister but was named party vice chairman responsible for local government. The reshuffle, along with the appointment of new Conservative Party vice-chairs, was designed to show that the Government and the Tory Party is representative of the country as a whole, according to Theresa May’s spokesman. But it did not go smoothly. Former Education Secretary Justine Greening reportedly refused Mrs May’s request that she should take on the Work and Pensions role. She spent more than two hours locked in talks in Downing Street, before eventually resigning from the Government.