Rishi Sunak has assembled a cabinet that Downing Street says “reflects a united party” after the PM promised to form a government of “all the talents”.
The reshuffle by the UK’s third leader this year has changed the gender and ethnicity balance of the cabinet – with some departing ministers having a very short tenure in key positions.
Here are some of the key numbers behind the cabinet reshuffle.
An older cabinet
The average age of cabinet ministers is 52, up from 49 under Liz Truss.
At 42, Rishi Sunak is one of the youngest members of his own cabinet – with only two other ministers the same age: Home Secretary Suella Braverman and International Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch.
Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan is the youngest at 38 years old.
Some 15 of the 21 full-time cabinet ministers are aged 50 or over.
Image: Kemi Badenoch arrives in Downing Street after being appointed to the cabinet
22% of those able to attend cabinet meetings are women
The cabinet has become less diverse, both in terms of gender and ethnicity.
In Mr Sunak’s government, 22% of all people able to attend cabinet meetings are women.
This is down from 32% at the start of Ms Truss’s premiership, which was the highest proportion ever for a prime minister’s first cabinet.
It is also lower than the equivalent figure for Boris Johnson (24%) and Theresa May (30%).
Five of the 31 people able to attend Mr Sunak’s cabinet are non-white, including the prime minister.
This is down from seven out of 31 in Liz Truss’s initial top team.
Shortest-serving home secretary replaced after six days
Grant Shapps goes into the history books as the shortest-serving home secretary in modern political history.
Mr Shapps was given the job by former prime minister Ms Truss on 19 October and lasted just six days until being replaced by Suella Braverman on 25 October.
It represents a very swift return to the role of home secretary for Ms Braverman. She had held the post directly before Mr Shapps – but resigned after just 43 days after breaching the ministerial code.
She is currently the second-shortest serving home secretary since 1900.
If she manages to stay in the job for another 19 days, she will become the third shortest-serving person to hold the role.
Image: Grant Shapps was home secretary for less than a week. Pic: AP
The first female deputy prime minister was in the role for just 49 days
Dominic Raab is returning to the deputy prime minister post he held from September 2021 to September 2022.
This means Therese Coffey’s spell as the first woman to formally hold the role of deputy prime minister lasted just 49 days.
Only three other people have ever been officially appointed to the role: Conservative politician Michael Heseltine (1995 to 1997), Labour’s John Prescott (1997 to 2007) and the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg (2010 to 2015).
Ten education secretaries in 12 years
Gillian Keegan has become the UK’s 10th education secretary in 12 years.
The turnover has been so great that five separate people have held the job of education secretary in the last 12 months.
Image: Gillian Keegan is the new education secretary
Nine work and pensions secretaries since 2010
New Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride follows in the footsteps of Chloe Smith (2022), Therese Coffey (2019-2022), Amber Rudd (2018-19), Esther McVey (2018), David Gauke (2017-18), Damian Green (2016-17), Stephen Crabb (2016) and Iain Duncan Smith (2010-16).
Gove returning to cabinet after 111 days
Michael Gove is returning to the cabinet – 111 days after he was sacked by Boris Johnson.
Mr Gove has now held six different cabinet posts since 2010: education secretary, chief whip, justice secretary, environment secretary, chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and levelling up secretary.
Seven transport secretaries in 12 years
Mark Harper is the seventh transport secretary since 2010 and the 14th politician to have cabinet-level responsibility for transport since 1997.
Image: Liverpool’s captain Virgil van Dijk. Pic: Reuters
Image: Liverpool’s Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo (right) arrive at the funeral of Diogo Jota and Andre Silva. Pic: PA
Jota, 28, leaves behind his wife of only 11 days, Rute Cardoso, and three young children.
His younger brother, 25, was an attacking midfielder for Penafiel in the second tier of Portuguese football.
Liverpool manager Arne Slot, captain Virgil Van Dijk and teammates including Andy Robertson, Conor Bradley, Ryan Gravenberch, Cody Gakpo, Curtis Jones, Darwin Nunez and Joe Gomez were seen at the service.
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Former teammates Jordan Henderson, James Milner and Fabinho were also there.
Van Dijk carried a red wreath with Jota’s number 20, while Robertson had a wreath featuring number 30, Silva’s number at Penafiel.
Image: Manchester United and Portugal player Bruno Fernandes. Pic: PA
Image: Liverpool’s captain Virgil van Dijk and Liverpool’s player Andrew Robertson. Pic: Reuters
Some of Jota’s teammates in the Portuguese national side also attended, including Bruno Fernandes, of Manchester United, Ruben Dias and Bernardo Silva, of Manchester City, Joao Felix and Renato Veiga, of Chelsea, Nelson Semedo, from Wolves, Joao Moutinho and Rui Patricio.
Ruben Neves was one of the pallbearers after flying in from Florida where he played for Al Hilal in the Club World Cup quarter-final on Friday night.
‘More than a friend’
In a post published on Instagram before the service, he told Jota he had been “more than a friend, we’re family, and we won’t stop being that way just because you’ve decided to sign a contract a little further away from us!”
Jota’s fellow Liverpool midfielder, Alexis Mac Allister, said on Instagram: “I can’t believe it. I’ll always remember your smiles, your anger, your intelligence, your camaraderie, and everything that made you a person. It hurts so much; we’ll miss you. Rest in peace, dear Diogo.”
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Porto FC president Andre Villas-Boas and Portugal national team manager Roberto Martinez were also in attendance.
‘With us forever’
Speaking after the ceremony, Martinez said the period since their deaths had been “really, really sad days, as you can imagine, but today we showed we are a large, close family.
“Their spirit will be with us forever.”
The service was private, but the words spoken by the Bishop of Porto, Manuel Linda, were broadcast to those standing outside the church.
He told Jota’s children, who were not at the service, that he was praying for them specifically, as well as their mother and grandparents.
“There are no words, but there are feelings,” he said, adding: “We also suffer a lot and we are with you emotionally.”
The brothers died after a Lamborghini they were travelling in burst into flames following a suspected tyre blowout in the early hours of Thursday morning.
No other vehicles are said to have been involved in the incident.
Liverpool have delayed the return of their players for pre-season following Jota’s death and players past and present paid tribute to him and his brother on social media.
Rachel Reeves has hinted that taxes are likely to be raised this autumn after a major U-turn on the government’s controversial welfare bill.
Sir Keir Starmer’s Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill passed through the House of Commons on Tuesday after multiple concessions and threats of a major rebellion.
MPs ended up voting for only one part of the plan: a cut to universal credit (UC) sickness benefits for new claimants from £97 a week to £50 from 2026/7.
Initially aimed at saving £5.5bn, it now leaves the government with an estimated £5.5bn black hole – close to breaching Ms Reeves’s fiscal rules set out last year.
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Rachel Reeves’s fiscal dilemma
In an interview with The Guardian, the chancellor did not rule out tax rises later in the year, saying there were “costs” to watering down the welfare bill.
“I’m not going to [rule out tax rises], because it would be irresponsible for a chancellor to do that,” Ms Reeves told the outlet.
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“We took the decisions last year to draw a line under unfunded commitments and economic mismanagement.
“So we’ll never have to do something like that again. But there are costs to what happened.”
Meanwhile, The Times reported that, ahead of the Commons vote on the welfare bill, Ms Reeves told cabinet ministers the decision to offer concessions would mean taxes would have to be raised.
The outlet reported that the chancellor said the tax rises would be smaller than those announced in the 2024 budget, but that she is expected to have to raise tens of billions more.
Sir Keir did not explicitly say that she would, and Ms Badenoch interjected to say: “How awful for the chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she would stay in place.”
In her first comments after the incident, Ms Reeves said she was having a “tough day” before adding: “People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday.
“Today’s a new day and I’m just cracking on with the job.”
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“In PMQs, it is bang, bang, bang,” he said. “That’s what it was yesterday.
“And therefore, I was probably the last to appreciate anything else going on in the chamber, and that’s just a straightforward human explanation, common sense explanation.”
The family and friends of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva have been joined by Liverpool stars past and present and other Portuguese players at the pair’s funeral near Porto.
Pictures below show the funeral at the Igreja Matriz de Gondomar church in the town of Gondomar near Porto. Click here for our liveblog coverage of the day’s events.
Image: Diogo Jota’s wife Rute Cardoso arrives for the funeral of him and his brother Andre Silva. Pic: Reuters
Image: Liverpool players Virgil van Dijk and Andrew Robertson arrive for the funeral. Pic: Reuters
Image: Van Dijk carried a wreath with Jota’s number 20 while Andrew Robertson’s had a 30 for Andre Silva. Pic: Reuters
Image: Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk. Pic: Reuters
Image: Portugal player Ruben Neves arrives at the funeral. Pic: PA
Image: Liverpool’s Joe Gomez and manager Arne Slot arrive at the funeral of Diogo Jota and Andre Silva. Pic; PA
Image: Liverpool’s Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo (right) arrive at the funeral of Diogo Jota and Andre Silva
Image: Manchester City and Portugal player Bernardo Silva arrives at the funeral. Pic: AP
Image: The coffins are carried to the church. Pic: PA
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Miguell Rocha played with Jota for around ten years with Gondomar Sport Clube in Portugal.
Image: People line up to enter the church. Pic: AP
Image: Pallbearers carry the coffins of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva
Image: Pic: Reuters
Image: Pic: AP
Image: People gather outside the Chapel of the Resurrection. Pic: Reuters
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The former captain was seen wiping away tears as he read messages and laid his tribute down.
Image: Fans pay their respects outside Anfield in Liverpool. Pic: Reuters
Image: A board with a picture of Diogo Jota outside Anfield Stadium. Pic: PA
Image: The coffins are carried to the church. Pic: PA