WORK and Pensions minister Penny Mordaunt has been appointed as the new International Development Secretary.
44-year-old Portsmouth MP Mordaunt has replaced Priti Patel following her resignation on Wednesday over unauthorised meetings with senior Israelis.
Like Ms Patel, she campaigned for Brexit in the EU referendum and her appointment will maintain the balance between Leavers and Remainers in the Cabinet.
Home Office minister Sarah Newton is promoted to take Mordaunt’s place at the Department for Work and Pensions.
Victoria Atkins, who entered Parliament in 2015, joins the Government for the first time as a new Home Office minister.
Ms Mordaunt came under fire over comments made in the build-up to the Referendum where she inaccurately claimed that the UK did not have a veto on Turkey joining the EU.
So one minister is sacked by a Tory PM for being less than frank with people, only to replaced by another Minister who was accused of being less than frank with the British people by another Tory PM https://t.co/UdQlPKeK2H. A total and utter shambles
— Chuka Umunna (@ChukaUmunna) November 9, 2017
She was also accused of ‘trivialising parliament’ after admitting to delivering a speech in Parliament on poultry in order to use the word ‘cock’ several times as a forfeit from her navy training.
Ms Mordaunt is a Royal Naval Reservist operating out of a base in her constituency.
In 2014 she appeared on the TV reality show Splash, donating her appearance fee from the diving contest to charitable causes.
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