Yorkshire MP named Minister after predecessor quits over Brexit

THERESA MAY has appointed Scarborough and Whitby MP Robert Goodwill as agriculture Minister, after George Eustice quit the job last week to fight for Brexit.

Mr Goodwill, who backed Remain in the 2016 referendum, takes the rank of Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

He was dropped by Mrs May from a similar post in the Department for Education in the Prime Minister’s reshuffle of January 2018.

Mr Goodwill, who arrived in Parliament in 2005, served as a whip and transport minister under David Cameron and was promoted to immigration minister, and then children’s minister, by Mrs May before leaving the Government last year.

He wasted no time in taking a seat on the frontbench in the Commons after his appointment and was seen chatting with Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley.

Leave-backing Mr Eustice quit on February 28 after more than five years as Agriculture Minister, complaining the Prime Minister’s decision to allow a vote on delaying the date of Brexit could result in “the final humiliation of our country”.

Mr Goodwill is one of the few Conservative MPs in Yorkshire to back a One Yorkshire devolution deal and wrote a joint op-ed with Keighley’s John Grogan on the subject ahead of last Friday’s meeting between council leaders and Communities Secretary James Brokenshire.

He told The Yorkshire Post last year: “It is about having a single figure, a directly-elected metro mayor who will speak for the region.”