Rishi Sunak’s reshuffle: David Cameron makes surprise return as foreign secretary – here’s who is in and out of cabinet
David Cameron has been appointed as foreign secretary in a cabinet reshuffle.
The former prime minister, who was given the role while in Number 10 this morning, said he “gladly accepted” the offer from Rishi Sunak, despite having “disagreed with some individual decisions” by his successor.
Speaking to broadcasters, the now Lord Cameron said he accepted bringing back an ex-PM was “not usual”, but he “believes in public service” and has “useful experience” to bring to the table.
He also called his new boss a “strong and capable prime minister who is showing exemplary leadership at a difficult time”, adding: “I want to help him to deliver the security and prosperity our country needs and be part of the strongest possible team that serves the United Kingdom and that can be presented to the country when the general election is held.”
Follow live for updates and analysis on reshuffle
The ex-party leader is no longer an elected politician as he stood down as an MP in 2016, having called the Brexit referendum and his campaign to remain in the EU losing the vote.
But the government has confirmed he will now enter the House of Lords as a life peer, giving him the opportunity to serve as a minister once more.
Downing Street confirmed his salary would be that of a secretary of state in the Lords – £104,360 per year – but said Mr Cameron would no longer take his prime ministerial allowance, and would not take the daily allowance given to other peers.
The shock announcement came after the sacking of Suella Braverman as home secretary, who provoked widespread condemnation for an article she wrote in The Times, accusing the police of “playing favourites” with left-wing groups over right-wing and national activists.
It was the latest in a string of controversial remarks by the Tory MP, who is a popular member on the right of the party, including her claiming being homeless was a “lifestyle choice”.
We are expecting more movement at the very top of government as the day goes on, so keep up to date with who’s in and who’s out in our list below.
Read more:
Three key questions about Cameron’s comeback
Who is in?
Lord Cameron, who brought the Tories back to power as part of a coalition with the Liberal Democrats in 2010, has returned to government as foreign secretary.
Many of the party’s One Nation MPs – closer to the centre of politics – may welcome the return of Lord Cameron, who secured them two victories at general elections and is well known internationally.
But he does not come without his controversies, including his austerity policies, decisions over Brexit, his push for closer ties with China, and accusations of lobbying when employed by Greensill.
In a lengthy statement released after his appointment, Lord Cameron said the UK faces a “daunting set of international challenges”, including wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
He said: “While I have been out of frontline politics for the last seven years, I hope that my experience – as Conservative leader for eleven years and prime minister for six – will assist me in helping the prime minister to meet these vital challenges.”
Having served as foreign secretary since September last year – after being appointed by then prime minister Liz Truss – James Cleverly will now move to the Home Office as home secretary.
Speaking to broadcasters from his new department, he said it was a “fantastic job” and it would be “a real privilege to serve”.
He added: “I’m absolutely committed to stopping the boats, as we promised, but also making sure that everybody in the UK feels safe and secure, going around, going about their daily business, knowing that the government is here to protect them”.
Brought in as health secretary when Mr Sunak took over the leadership last October, Steve Barclay may have been hoping to keep his post.
But after a lot of rumours he may be dropped from cabinet altogether, he has now been announced as taking over the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Taking to social media after his appointment, Mr Barclay said: he would be focusing on three areas – “backing British farming and fishing; championing rural communities; and protecting the environment”.
He added: “As an MP for a rural area I know how important these issues are to many people up and down our country.”
Mr Barclay’s job has been handed over to Victoria Atkins, who will now be in charge of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
It will be the first time Ms Atkins will hold a secretary of state role, having held more junior positions in the past.
Most recently, she has been financial secretary to Treasury.
Jeremy Hunt will remain chancellor, having been brought in by Ms Truss after the disaster of her mini-budget, and kept on by Mr Sunak.
After holding a minor ministerial role at transport – albeit an important one, covering roads and local transport – Richard Holden is now a fully-fledged cabinet member.
He has become the new party chairman, and will be leading on the Tories’ next election campaign.
Former party chairman Greg Hands, who up until this morning was posting chairman-like attacks on social media against his opponents, has now been demoted.
No longer leading on the electoral mission, he will hold a mid-range ministerial role at the Department for Business and Trade.
Mr Hands said he was “disappointed to be leaving the job”, but revealed he was “able to choose” to return to work in trade – an area where he has been a minister three times before and “a job I also love”.
He added: “I even kept my business cards from last time.”
Having been a junior minister at the Department for Work and Pensions, Laura Trott has now been made chief secretary to the Treasury.
Ousted from that role, is John Glen.
A treasury colleague of Mr Sunak’s and a close ally, there had been rumours of a bigger office of state.
But instead he now takes on the role of paymaster general – a defender and, sometimes, attack dog for the prime minister in the Commons.
Lee Rowley
Having worked as a junior minister in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities since September last year, Lee Rowley gets a promotion in this reshuffle to housing secretary.
It makes him the 16th person to hold the post since the Tories came to power in 2010.
Who is out?
As we have reported, Ms Braverman has been sacked as home secretary and is no longer a minister of any kind, so will return to the backbenches as an MP.
In a statement released after her dismissal, Ms Braverman said: “It has been the greatest privilege of my life to serve as home secretary. I will have more to say in due course.”
It is the second time she has lost the job of home secretary after she resigned from Ms Truss’s government for breaking the ministerial code.
The former housing minister announced on Twitter that she had been sacked – or “asked to step down”.
Ms Maclean said she was “disappointed” by Mr Sunak’s decision, but added: “It has been a privilege to hold the position and I wish my successor well.”
Paul Scully
A former mayoral hopeful, Paul Scully has been sacked as the minister for London, as well as his role as minister for tech and digital economy, Sky News understands.
After she was seen walking into Number 10 this morning – following a brief pause to stroke Larry the cat – it was thought Environment Secretary Therese Coffey may have kept a role in government.
But an exchange of letters between her and the prime minister released two hours later shows she is off, telling Mr Sunak: “I consider it is now the right time to step back from government.”
She marked having served “all five Conservative prime ministers” since getting a role back in 2014, but said she had “always been most proud of in representing my constituents… and acting on local issues”.
Mr Sunak wrote back to “express my gratitude to you for your years of dedicated ministerial service”, as well as her “friendship to me personally”.
Schools Minister Nick Gibb said he had quit the government and would not stand at the next general election, adding: “I campaigned for Rishi last summer and I remain an enthusiastic supporter of the prime minister’s leadership.”
Health minister Neil O’Brien also announced he was stepping down – despite being due to play a key role in delivering Mr Sunak’s ban on smoking and vaping in the younger generation.
Another health minister, Will Quince, has also stepped down from his role in a letter to the prime minister.
In it, he said due to his decision to stand down as an MP at the next election and recently becoming a specialist reserve officer in the army, “now feels like the right time to leave government”.
Transport minister Jesse Norman has also quit, revealing in a letter that he had let the chief whip know his plans to step down “some months ago”.
The now former paymaster general Jeremy Quin said he was offered “reassurance” that he could stay in government by the prime minister, but he has decided to “step back to concentrate on projects in Horsham” – his constituency.
Another MP to stand down from his post is George Freeman, who had been a science minister since February – but held a number of roles beforehand.
In a letter to the prime minister, he said he had made the decision “with a heavy heart”, but added: “The time has come for me to focus on my health, family wellbeing and life beyond the frontbench”.
Politics
Wes Streeting denies Labour has made ‘mistakes’ with ‘unpopular’ policies despite poor local election results
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has defended “unpopular” policies such as the cut to the winter fuel allowance despite Labour’s poor performance at the local elections.
Mr Streeting denied the government had made any mistakes when asked whether the policy was partly to blame for the party losing 189 council seats less than a year since the General Election.
Since coming into government last July, Labour has enacted a number of policies that were not in its manifesto.
These include means-testing winter fuel payments for pensioners, increasing employers’ national insurance contributions and slashing £5bn from the welfare bill.
Asked what mistakes his government had made so far that had led to its drubbing at the ballot box, Mr Streeting told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “Well, we will make plenty of mistakes.”
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Pressed again on whether he believed “mistakes” had been made, the health secretary replied: “No. When we made those choices, we knew they would be unpopular. And we knew that they would be opposed.
“The reason we made those choices is because we genuinely believe they’re the right choices to get the country out of the massive hole it was left in. And right across the board. Whether it’s the NHS, whether it’s schools, whether it’s prisons, whether it’s our defence and security, whether it’s crime and policing, there were enormous challenges facing this country when we came in.
“And we’ve had to make big and sometimes unpopular decisions so that we can face those challenges and deal with them. People might thank us if we just kind of go for the easy but we want to make the right choices.”
Some Labour MPs have urged the government to change direction, with one telling Sky News the cut to winter fuel was a “catastrophic error” that must be “remedied” if the party is to see any improvement in public opinion.
Others have warned that in courting Reform voters, the party risks fracturing its coalition of voters on the left who may be tempted by the Liberal Democrats and Green Party.
However, in the aftermath of the local elections, Sir Keir Starmer suggested the poor results meant he needed to go “further and faster” in delivering his existing agenda.
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Inside Reform’s election success
The real victor to emerge from Thursday’s local elections was Reform UK, which won control of 10 councils and picked up 677 council seats largely at the expense of the Conservatives in the south.
However, Reform also won the Runcorn by-election from Labour by just six votes, as well as control of Doncaster Council from Labour – the only local authority it had control of in this set of elections – in a significant win for Nigel Farage and his party.
The Reform UK leader declared that two-party politics was now “finished” and that his party was now the official “opposition” to Labour.
Asked whether the results meant that Labour would now treat Reform as “your most serious opposition”, Mr Streeting said: ” I certainly do treat them as a serious opposition force.”
“As I say, I don’t know whether it will be Reform or the Conservatives that emerge as the main threat,” he added.
“I don’t have a horse in that race, but like alien versus predator, I don’t really want either one to win.”
Read more:
Reform’s mission to ‘remoralise’ young people
Reform has put the two traditional parties on notice
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Reform UK are ‘fighting force’
Tory Party chairman Nigel Huddleston said Reform UK was not just a protest party and that Mr Farage was “a force in British politics”.
He told Trevor Phillips: “But the one thing about Nigel Farage is, and we’re seeing this again and again and again, he is a populist.
“He is increasingly saying everything that anybody wants to hear. He’s trying to be all things to all men.”
“We are establishing ourselves as a credible alternative government based on sound conservative principles and values and our values and our principles, and therefore our policies, will define the future of our party,” he added.
Kemi Badenoch has admitted it is “feasible” that Nigel Farage could become the next prime minister.
The Tory leader told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme Mr Farage’s party was “expressing the feeling of frustration that a lot of people around the country are feeling” – but added it was her job to “come up with answers and solutions”.
Asked if it was feasible that Mr Farage could be the next prime minister, she cited how Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had won re-election this weekend.
“As I said, anything is feasible,” she said. “Anthony Albanese: people were writing him off. He has just won a landslide, but my job is to make sure that he [Farage] does not become prime minister because he does not have the answers to the problems the country is facing.”
Politics latest: Lucy Powell ‘right’ to apologise for grooming gangs comments
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Could Nigel Farage be prime minister?
Asked what Mr Farage was doing right, Ms Badenoch said: “He is expressing the feeling of frustration that a lot of people around the country are feeling.
“But he also doesn’t have a record in government like the two main parties do. Now he’s going to be running some councils. We’ll see how that goes.”
Mr Farage was the undoubted winner of Thursday’s local elections, in which 23 councils were up for grabs.
His party picked up 677 council seats and took control of 10 councils.
By contrast, the Conservatives lost 677 council seats as well as control of 18 councils in what was their worst local elections performance on record.
Mr Farage said the outcome spelt the end of two-party politics and that his party was now the official “opposition” to Labour – with the Tories having been rendered a “waste of space”.
Read more:
Reform has put the two traditional parties on notice
‘I get it’: Starmer responds after losing Runcorn by-election
Ms Badenoch said she believed the vote for Mr Farage on Thursday was partly down to “protest” but added: “That doesn’t mean we sit back. We are going to come out fighting.
“We are going to come out with the policies that people want to see, but what we are not going to do is rush out and tell the public things that are not true just so we can win votes.
“This is not about winning elections; this is about fixing our country. Yes, of course, you need to win elections to do that, but you also need a credible plan.”
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‘Farage is a force in British politics’
Conservative co-chairman Nigel Huddleston sought to play down the threat from Reform UK, telling Sky News: “When they’re in a position of delivering things, that’s when the shine comes off.”
He told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “The one thing about Nigel Farage is, and we’re seeing this again and again and again, he is a populist.
“He is increasingly saying everything that anybody wants to hear. He’s trying to be all things to all men.”
“We are establishing ourselves as a credible alternative government based on sound conservative principles and values and our values and our principles, and therefore our policies, will define the future of our party,” he added.
Asked whether the results meant that Labour would now treat Reform as “your most serious opposition”, Health Secretary Wes Streeting told Trevor Phillips: ” I certainly do treat them as a serious opposition force.”
“As I say, I don’t know whether it will be Reform or the Conservatives that emerge as the main threat,” he added.
“I don’t have a horse in that race, but like alien versus predator, I don’t really want either one to win.”
A group of US Senate Democrats known for supporting the crypto industry have said they would oppose a Republican-led stablecoin bill if it moves forward in its current form.
The move threatens to stall legislation that could establish the first US regulatory framework for stablecoins, according to a May 3 report from Politico.
Per the report, nine Senate Democrats said in a joint statement that the bill “still has numerous issues that must be addressed.” They warned they would not support a procedural vote to advance the legislation unless changes are made.
Among the signatories were Senators Ruben Gallego, Mark Warner, Lisa Blunt Rochester and Andy Kim — all of whom had previously backed the bill when it passed through the Senate Banking Committee in March.
The bill, introduced by Senator Bill Hagerty, is formally known as the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act.
Related: Fed’s Powell reasserts support for stablecoin legislation
Senate prepares to vote on stablecoin bill
The Senate is expected to begin floor consideration of the bill in the coming days, with the first vote potentially taking place next week.
The bill has been championed by the crypto industry as a landmark step toward regulatory clarity. However, the Democrats’ about-face reflects growing unease within the party.
Although revisions were made to the bill after its committee approval to address Democratic concerns, the lawmakers said the changes fell short. They called for stronger safeguards related to Anti-Money Laundering, national security, foreign issuers, and accountability measures for noncompliant actors.
The statement was also signed by Senators Raphael Warnock, Catherine Cortez Masto, Ben Ray Luján, John Hickenlooper and Adam Schiff.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Senator Angela Alsobrooks were absent from the list, who co-sponsored the bill alongside Hagerty.
Despite their objections, the Democratic senators emphasized their commitment to shaping responsible crypto regulation. They reportedly said they “are eager to continue working with our colleagues to address these issues.”
Related: US banks are ‘free to begin supporting Bitcoin’
Crypto needs a stablecoin bill
On April 27, Caitlin Long, founder and CEO of Custodia Bank, criticized the US Federal Reserve for quietly maintaining a key anti-crypto policy that favors big-bank-issued stablecoins, despite relaxing crypto partnership rules for banks.
Long explained that while the Fed recently rescinded four prior crypto guidelines, a Jan. 27, 2023, statement was left intact in coordination with the Biden administration.
The guidance, according to Long, blocks banks from engaging directly with crypto assets and prohibits them from issuing stablecoins on permissionless blockchains.
However, Long noted that once a federal stablecoin bill becomes law, it could override the Fed’s stance. “Congress should hurry up,” she urged.
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