Boris Johnson appoints Therese Coffey as Amber Rudd's replacement as Work and Pensions Secretary

Jacob Jarvis8 September 2019
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Boris Johnson has appointed Therese Coffey as Work and Pensions Secretary following the resignation of Amber Rudd.

Downing Street confirmed the move today, following Ms Rudd quitting her role and renouncing the Tory party whip on Saturday.

Ms Coffey, MP for Suffolk Coastal, was previously Minister of State for Environment and Rural Opportunity.

Elected in 2010, Ms Coffey is a former deputy Commons leader and was appointed as environment minister by Theresa May.

She backed Remain during the EU referendum in 2016.

Ms Rudd said she quit over what she perceived as a lack of work on securing a Brexit deal and also took issue at the whip being withdrawn from Tory rebels who voted to block no-deal.

Amber Rudd quit in protest of the PM's handling of Brexit
REUTERS

She said: “Unfortunately I can no longer continue to serve and I have been surprised by the lack of work and preparation that is going into getting a deal with the European Union.

“I knew and I accept that the Prime Minister should be able to leave no deal on the table but what I had expected to see was a huge government-centred effort to get a deal and at the moment there is a lot of work going on into no deal and not enough into getting a deal.”

Speaking on Sunday, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he was "really sorry" to see Ms Rudd leave the Cabinet.

He told Sky News's Sophy Ridge on Sunday: "I'm really sorry to see Amber step down, I like her, I respect her.

"We became MPs at the same time in 2010, but I think in fairness when she took the cabinet role everyone was asked 'do you accept and can you sign up and will you support the Prime Minister's plan to leave by the end of October preferably with a deal, but if not come what may' and we all accepted that.

"I think the Prime Minister was right to restore some discipline and I think he's right to expect it from his top team."

He added: "It's been a rough week, but the reality is the Prime Minister is sticking to his guns on what he said to get us out of this rut that we're in."

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