• Matt Hancock remains as health secretary
  • Helen Whately joins DHSC, with Caroline Dinenage leaving

Matt Hancock has retained his position as health secretary in Thursday’s cabinet reshuffle, while the chancellor Sajid Javid has resigned.

Mr Hancock has kept his position despite other big names — such as Northern Ireland secretary Julian Smith and business secretary Andrea Leadsom — being fired. Meanwhile, Mr Javid has resigned as chancellor, and been replaced by chief secretary to the Treasury Rishi Sunak. 

There was little suggestion Mr Hancock would go, having loyally supported the now prime minister on key messaging around Brexit and Conservative party NHS pledges during the election campaign.

Mr Hancock replaced Jeremy Hunt as health secretary in July 2018. After his party’s win in December, he retained the role following a small cabinet reshuffle. He also survived a larger reshuffle last July, shortly after Boris Johnson was appointed prime minister.  

There are currently high-profile government commitments to NHS capital spending and growing the workforce, while Mr Hancock’s department is also focusing on handling coronavirus.

There were, however, a number of high-profile sackings from government. Mr Smith (Northern Ireland), Ms Leadsom (business), Theresa Villiers (environment), Esther McVey (housing), Nusrat Ghani (transport minister), George Freeman (transport) and attorney general Geoffery Cox were all given the boot. Universities and science minister Chris Skidmore, who was briefly health minister last year, also lost his job. 

Priti Patel and Dominic Raab remain home secretary and foreign secretary respectively. Michael Gove also stayed as minister for the Cabinet Office.

In a major shock, Mr Javid resigned. It is alleged he was asked to fire all his special advisers in exchange to retain his post. Chief secretary to the Treasury and Richmond (Yorks) MP Mr Sunak was promoted in his place.

  • Helen Whately has been named as care minister, joining from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. She is a former member of the Commons health and social care committee, and worked in the healthcare division of McKinsey & Company until 2015.
  • Caroline Dinenage, previously the DHSC minister with responsibility for social care, has been moved to DCMS.
  • Edward Argar remains a DHSC minister.
  • Nadine Dorries remains a DHSC minister.
  • Jo Churchill remains a DHSC minister. 

The final ministerial lineup at DHSC is yet to be confirmed.

Updated 8.45pm to include ministerial updates.

Source

Government announcement

Source Date

February 2020

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