Theresa May takes axe to Cameron’s Cabinet ousting posh boys for state educated ministers
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is the only Old Etonian left in the new Cabinet
THERESA May’s Cabinet now has the fewest number of privately educated ministers since the end of World War Two.
Her reshuffle leaves just one Old Etonian — Boris Johnson — as working-class MPs and Mrs May allies were awarded hefty Cabinet promotions. Only 30 per cent of her top team attended private schools.
Seven members of the Cabinet went to grammar schools, while Justine Greening became the Tories’ first Comprehensive-schooled Education Secretary as Mrs May put substance behind her One Nation mantra.
Former coal miner Patrick McLaughlin led the charge of the blue collar Conservatives as he was made Conservative Party chairman in a brutal clear out of David Cameron's cronies with 11 of his team ousted in 24 hours.
Son of a Middlesborough milkman Greg Hands took charge of the jumbo new super department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Backbench MP Nadine Dorries, who once blasted Cameron and George Osborne as "two arrogant posh boys", gloated: "Thrilled with every appointment. Not one made because once at school, uni or shared a flat with the PM.
"A Cabinet of sheer talent."
Mrs also packed her top team full of women, with Amber Rudd taking the Home Office, Liz Truss bagging Justice and Andrea Leadsom moving to Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
The eight women in top-ranking ministerial posts equals the record set during the Blair years and is one more than Mr Cameron managed.
Prizing loyalty on a par with talent, Mrs May rewarded long standing allies and former deputies under her at the Home Office over the last six years.
One of the key members of her leadership campaign team, Damian Green, was brought back into the government and put into the key role of Work and Pensions Secretary.
He was previously Police Minister under Mrs May at the Home Office, but was sacked by David Cameron in 2014.
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Her leadership campaigner manager Chris Grayling was promoted to Transport Secretary, and her immigration deputy at the Home Office James Brokenshire was elevated to the Cabinet role of Northern Ireland Secretary.
One of the only Cameroon-loyalists to make the leap into Mrs May’s inner circle was the ex-PM’s former parliamentary private secretary, the young MP Gavin Williamson.
Saying he was “very surprised and very delighted”, the 40 year-old Yorkshireman was given the plum role of Chief Whip, having also played an instrumental role in her campaign for the Tory crown.
Leadership rival Andrea Leadsom was one of four new women to join the Cabinet as Environment Secretary.
Priti Patel was another, promoted to Development Secretary.
But with four women also sacked from it, the final total of eight female members of Mrs May’s top team including her was only one more than in Mr Cameron’s Cabinet.
Critics said that fell short of her pledge to significantly boost the role of women, despite also appointing Amber Rudd as Home Secretary and making Liz Truss Britain’s first woman Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor.
WINNERS AND LOSERS: Who's in and who's out of May's Cabinet?
IN
Boris Johnson – Foreign Secretary
Philip Hammond – Chancellor of the Exchequer
Amber Rudd – Home Secretary
Michael Fallon – Defence Secretary
David Davis – Brexit Minister
Liam Fox – International Trade Secretary
Liz Truss – Justice Secretary
Jeremy Hunt – Health Secretary
Justine Greening – Education Secretary
Patrick McLoughlin – Conservative Party Chairman
Baroness Evans – Leader of the House of Lords
Chris Grayling – Transport Secretary
Damian Green – Department of Work and Pensions
Andrea Leadsom – Energy Secretary
Sajid Javid – Communities and Local Government Secretary
James Brokenshire – Northern Ireland Secretary
Greg Clark – Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Priti Patel – International Development Secretary
Karen Bradley – Culture, Media and Sport
Alun Cairns – Secretary of State for Wales
David Mundell - Secretary of State for Scotland
David Lidington - Leader of the House of Commons
David Gauke - Financial Secretary to the Treasury
Jeremy Wright - Attorney General
OUT
Oliver Letwin – Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Michael Gove – Justice Secretary
Nicky Morgan – Education Secretary
John Whittingdale – Culture Secretary
George Osborne – Chancellor of the Exchequer
Theresa Villiers – Northern Ireland Secretary
Baroness Stowell – Leader of the House of Lords
Stephen Crabb – Department of Work and Pensions
Mark Harper - Chief Whip