Cabinet Reshuffle LIVE: David Cameron returns, Suella Braverman sacked

OUT

Suella Braverman – was Home Secretary

Therese Coffey – was Environment Secretary

Rachel Maclean – was Housing Minister

MOVING

James Cleverly – from Foreign Secretary to Home Secretary

IN

David Cameron – Foreign Secretary

STAYING

Jeremy Hunt – Chancelllor

1.10pm update:

• Therese Coffey has quit as Environment Secretary after serving 5 PMs
• Rishi Sunak has fired Housing Minister Rachel Maclean
• Suella Braverman has been sacked as Home Secretary but warns PM: ‘I have more to say’
• Former Prime Minister David Cameron appointed Foreign Secretary
• Ms Braverman has been replaced by James Cleverly

David Cameron made a shock comeback today as Rishi Sunak sacked Suella Braverman in a reshuffle described as ‘trolling’ the Tory Right .

MPs vented fury at the ‘astonishing’ overhaul by the PM in his big reset before the election, ousting Ms Braverman after a series of bitter clashes.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, a close ally of Mr Sunak with less trenchant views on the European Convention on Human Rights, is taking over in the Home Office .

Read more here

Tory MP Rachel Maclean has said she is ‘disappointed’ after being sacked as housing minister.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, she said: ‘I’ve been asked to step down from my role as housing minister. Disappointed and was looking forward to introducing the Renters Reform Bill to committee tomorrow and later the Leasehold and Freehold Bill.

‘It has been a privilege to hold the position and I wish my successor well.’

Therese Coffey has left her role as Environment Secretary, Downing Street said.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Ms Coffey said that it was ‘now the right time to step back from government’.

‘I look forward to supporting you from the backbenches and working together for a Conservative majority at the next election, which I believe to be profoundly in the national interest.’

David Cameron is entitled to claim the £115,000-a-year allowance given to all former prime ministers. But there is no confirmation yet on whether he will keep claiming it while in Parliament. He could also claim a salary as Foreign Secretary.

The official residence of the Foreign Secretary in London is 1 Carlton Gardens and Mr Cameron will also have the use of Chevening House, a country house in Kent.

Daily Mail Political Editor Jason Groves has pondered whether David Cameron was ever first choice for the Foreign Secretary job – suggesting that William Hague may have been the preferred candidate for the PM.

He tweeted: ‘Did Sunak initially want Hague for the job? Some Tory MPs think the PM turned to Cameron after Hague made clear he was serious about never returning to front line politics’.

He added: ‘The problem for Cameron is that Brexiteers see him as the Remainer-in-chief, while Remainers blame him for Brexit’.

Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said David Cameron’s appointment ‘is a measure of the desperation that surrounds this Government.’

‘It’s difficult to believe that this is going to impress voters, whether they are convinced Brexiteers who despise David Cameron for being a remainer, or convinced remainers who despise David Cameron for holding and losing a referendum.

‘On the upside, it’s a useful distraction from Braverman’s sacking, and as a former prime minister it will mean that the UK has rather more clout in international circles than perhaps might have been the case.’

Jacob Rees-Mogg said sacking the Home Secretary was ‘a mistake because Suella understood what the British voter thought and was trying to do something about it’.

‘David Cameron got the Brexit issue wrong in terms of the Conservative party and indeed the country at large who voted to leave but he did give us the choice to have the vote.

‘Without him we wouldn’t have had that referendum. He is a highly intelligent, capable individual. But will this potentially push some people to Reform’

Labour’s national campaign co-ordinator Pat McFadden has laughed off the appointment of David Cameron.

‘A few weeks ago Rishi Sunak said David Cameron was part of a failed status quo, now he’s bringing him back as his life raft. This puts to bed the Prime Minister’s laughable claim to offer change from 13 years of Tory failure.’

David Lammy, Shadow Foreign Secretary said:

David Cameron was a disastrous PM. This is a last gasp act of desperation from a government devoid of talent and ideas. Amid international crisis, Sunak has chosen an unelected failure from the past who MPs cannot even hold to account.

David Cameron is the seventh former Prime Minister in history to return to Government.

Stanley Baldwin, Ramsey MacDonald, Winston Churchill, Harold Wilson, Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone have taken the same journey.

Cameron is also the first Foreign Secretary to be a member of the House of Lords for more than 40 years.

These are the key points about his unlikely return, including his part in the Brexit referendum, a lobbying scandal and recent disagreements with his new boss Rishi Sunak over HS2.

What was his role in the Brexit referendum?

• David Cameron called the UK’s historic Brexit referendum – but backed remain having hoped to force the EU to change its rules for Britain while remaining a member. He promised a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU in 2013 if the Conservative Party won the next general election in 2015. He did so to try to garner support among eurosceptics within his own party – and end the row over EU membership once and for all – but he failed.

Why did he resign as Prime Minister?

• The last time most voters saw David Cameron was in 2016 outside Number 10, announcing his resignation the morning after millions of Britons voted to leave the European Union – putting paid to the Prime Minister’s hopes to keep the UK part of the bloc.

Is his return to Government unprecedented?

• The return has already raised eyebrows, but it is not unprecedented – Alec Douglas-Home, after less than a year as prime minister, went on to serve as foreign secretary between 1970 and 1974. Another former leader Lord Hague also went on to serve as Mr Cameron’s first foreign secretary.

What have David Cameron and Rishi Sunak disagreed on?

• The decision to scrap the northern leg of HS2, confirmed in the same speech, also prompted a rare public rebuke from Lord Cameron who labelled the decision the ‘wrong one’.
• As prime minister, he presided over the so-called ‘golden era’ of relations between Britain and China, hosting a state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping and welcoming investment from Beijing into the UK.
• Since then, relations between the two countries have deteriorated. In his first foreign policy speech as Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak declared the golden era over and described the pursuit of closer economic ties over the previous decade as “naive”.
• More recently, Mr Sunak also used his party conference speech to hit out at ’30 years of a political system which incentivises the easy decision, not the right one’, criticising the ‘vested interests standing in the way of change’.

What other scandals has David Cameron been part of?

• Lord Cameron was at the centre of a major scandal after it emerged he privately lobbied ministers to attempt to try to secure access to an emergency coronavirus loan scheme for the failed firm Greensill Capital, where he took up a role in 2018.

What has he been doing since he left No 10?

• In political retirement he stayed largely out of the public eye, apart from occasional appearances. He returned to his home in the Cotswolds and famously bought a £25,000 shepherds hut in which to write his memoir. He could afford it – after resigning he was handed an £800,000 book deal.
• Mr Cameron also made a career out of after-dinner speaking, reportedly earning up to £120,000 an hour.
• The Eton and Oxford-educated former politician’s first major private sector job after leaving office was as an advisor to the electronic payments firm First Data Corporation, which he joined in October 2017.
• He also had a paid advisory role with Illumina, a US genomics firm that specialises in research into genetic health conditions.
• And in 2019 he was announced as the head of the advisory board of the billion-pound US artificial intelligence firm Afiniti, which also employed Princess Beatrice.
• Most recently he drove to Ukraine to deliver aid.

11.20am update

Here is the latest news from the Prime Minister’s cabinet reshuffle:

• Suella Braverman has been sacked as Home Secretary but warns: ‘I have more to say’
• Ms Braverman has been replaced by James Cleverly
• Former Prime Minister David Cameron appointed Foreign Secretary

Suella Braverman today issued a warning shot to Rishi Sunak after the Prime Minister sacked her as Home Secretary as part of a dramatic reshuffle.

The now departed Cabinet minister vowed she would ‘have more to say’ after her removal from the top rank of Government.

Mr Sunak was also facing anger among Mrs Braverman’s supporters on the Tory Right, with some lamenting how she had been fired for ‘speaking the truth’.

Read the full story here

A jovial David Cameron in Downing Street today as he was made Foreign Secretary.

David Cameron made a shock comeback today as Rishi Sunak sacked Suella Braverman in a dramatic reshuffle.

The PM moved to oust Ms Braverman as he tries to restore his authority with potentially less than a year to a general election.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, a close ally of Mr Sunak with less trenchant views on the European Convention on Human Rights, is taking over in the Home Office.

In a decision that sent an earthquake through Westminster, David Cameron has been given a peerage and is filling Mr Cleverly’s old role. He is the first member of the Upper House to hold the role since Lord Carrington in the 1980s.

Just weeks ago Mr Cameron condemned Mr Sunak’s decision to downgrade the HS2 rail project. He is deeply distrusted by the Tory right after heading the Remain campaign, and also fostered closer relations with China as premier.

Read MailOnline’s story below

Rishi Sunak kicked off a dramatic reshuffle today with Suella Braverman axed as Home Secretary.

The PM moved to oust Ms Braverman as he tries to restore his authority with potentially less than a year to a general election.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, a close ally of Mr Sunak with less trenchant views on the European Convention on Human Rights, is taking over in the Home Office.

Read MailOnline’s story here

Good morning and welcome to MailOnline’s liveblog as Rishi Sunak has risked insurrection in the right of the his party as he sacked Suella Braverman as Home Secretary.