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Conservative Revolution

Britain and the world’s oldest conservative think tank

Conservative Revolution

Britain and the world’s oldest conservative think tank

All change please, the next stop is 2015

Jul 21, 2014 | Archive, News Articles

Authored by Aceil Haddad

Out with the old and in with the new. That was the narrative following Cameron’s refurbishment- or reshuffle- that left many aghast after a brutal Cabinet clear-out.

The reshuffle has been compared to Macmillans “night of the long knives” and saw the departure and reshuffle of a number of prominent ministers, including the veteran Europhile Ken Clarke, the shock announcement of William Hague’s retirement and the sacking of “two brains” David Willetts.

The new cabinet- presumably the one that will remain until the election- is evidently younger and more female following the promotion of Nicky Morgan to Education Secretary, Liz Truss to Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, along with Jeremy Wright as Attorney General and Stephen Crabb as Secretary of State for Wales.

In addition to the Cabinet promotions, the face of the junior ministers has had the same treatment. As Claire Perry becomes the junior Transport Minister, Anna Soubry climbs the ranks to Minister of State in the MOD and Amber Rudd moves from the whip’s office to become a junior Minister at DECC. Others causing a splash include Priti Patel as Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and Penny Mordaunt who joins the government as a junior minister at DCLG.

If you haven’t done the maths quite yet, both the number of women who are full members of the cabinet and those attending cabinet has doubled.

 Cameron’s cull would appear to be in reactionto claims that he is out of touch as the composition of Cabinet attempts to reflect the appearance of the rest of the population. But is this too little too late, or the injection of life needed to gain a Conservative majority at the next election.