Stand-off in Downing St
Education Secretary snubbed new Cabinet job in clash at No 10
JUSTINE Greening was forced out of Government last night after she unsuccessfully attempted to cling on to her job as Education Secretary.
In an extraordinary stand- off, Miss Greening remained in Downing Street for two-and-a-half hours as she refused a move to the Department for Work and Pensions.
After Theresa May reiterated that this was the only Cabinet job on offer, she was forced to resign.
Miss Greening, 48, who was the first openly gay woman Cabinet minister, could now prove to be a thorn in the Prime Minister’s side over Brexit and a third runway at Heathrow.
In her job at education, where she has been since Mrs May took office, Miss Greening annoyed allies of the Prime Minister with her lack of enthusiasm for grammar schools.
Shortly after 5pm yesterday she was called into No 10, where Mrs May told her she had decided it was time for ‘ new blood’ to drive forward her education reforms and offered her a sideways move to become Work and Pensions Secretary.
After Miss Greening resisted, Mrs May made the case that the proposed new job would ‘have a big role to play in social mobility’, which is an issue close to her heart.
Miss Greening mulled over the move in a room next door to the Prime Minister’s office for a couple of hours, before she rejected it and was told by Mrs May she had to go.
At 7.45pm it was announced that Miss Greening had quit Government. Last night a source close to the Prime Minister said: ‘She was offered a good job, but she refused to take it.’
Miss Greening tweeted last night: ‘Honour and privilege to serve in Govt since 2010. Social mobility matters to me and our country more than my Way out: Exits after PM stand-off ministerial career. I’ll continue to do everything I can to create a country that has equality of opportunity for young people and I’ll keep working hard as MP for Putney.’
She was the first minister solely educated at a comprehensive to hold the post of Education Secretary. She will be replaced by Damian Hinds, the former employment minister, who attended a Catholic grammar school in
The new-look Tories: Pages 8 & 9
Cheshire. Miss Greening, the daughter of a steelworker, attended Oakwood comprehensive in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, before studying economics at the University of Southampton.
She trained as an accountant before becoming an MP in 2005, entering the Cabinet as Transport Secretary in 2011 and then International Development Secretary.
Two days after the Brexit referen- dum in June 2016, Miss Greening, who had supported the Remain campaign, announced she was gay.
Miss Greening said she had been persuaded to come out by her partner, a university lecturer named Tess, and announced that the decision was ‘the best thing I’ve done in many, many, many a year’.
Miss Greening, who only held her staunchly Remain constituency of Putney by 1,554 votes at the election in June last year, could turn into a headache for Mrs May if she rebels over Brexit. She is also a fierce opponent of the plan for a new runway at Heathrow as her constituency is under the flight path.
In a reshuffle beset with social media blunders, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt was last night forced to explain why he had ‘liked’ a tweet stating that Miss Greening had left the Government.
Mr Hunt later tweeted: ‘Like button pressed by accident. Justine was an excellent minister and will be a great loss to govt.’