No 10 insists Raab will play ‘important senior role’ despite being replaced as foreign secretary

Published

3 years ago

September 16, 2021

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Dominic Raab will keep playing an “important senior role” in the government despite being moved in Boris Johnson’s cabinet reshuffle, Downing Street has said.

Mr Raab was replaced as foreign secretary by Liz Truss and shifted to the justice brief, a move widely seen as a demotion.

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He was also given the title of deputy prime minister, which some interpreted as an attempt by the prime minister to placate Mr Raab.

Number 10 insisted on Thursday that the change was a “planned move” and Mr Raab’s new title demonstrating Mr Johnson’s continuing trust in him.

But the prime minister’s spokesman would not comment on reports the former foreign secretary had resisted the move during tense talks with Mr Johnson on reshuffle day.

“This formalises Dominic Raab’s position as the prime minister’s deputy – he will stand in for him at PMQs; it demonstrates his seniority within government and the trust the prime minister places with him,” the spokesman said.

“You can expect him to be involved in cross-governmental work when that is necessitated. It is clear he will play an important senior role in government.”

Mr Raab came in for heavy criticism for his handling of the crisis in Afghanistan, including for being on holiday as Kabul fell to the Taliban.

Having shaken up his top team on Wednesday – including sacking Gavin Williamson as education secretary and Robert Buckland’s departure as justice secretary – the prime minister is continuing to change his junior and middle-ranking ministers.

Penny Mordaunt has been appointed as minister of state at the Department for International Trade, while John Whittingdale is no longer a media minister.

Elsewhere, Greg Hands has been moved from international trade minister to become a business minister, Kemi Badenoch is now both a housing minister and a Foreign Office minister and Nick Gibb – who has held the schools brief both as a minister and shadow minister for more than a decade – has been removed from his post.

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Meet the pro-crypto contenders who could replace SEC chief Gary Gensler

Published

2 hours ago

November 5, 2024

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Meet the pro-crypto contenders who could replace SEC chief Gary Gensler

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University tuition fee rise branded ‘morally wrong’ – as Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson defends increase

Published

11 hours ago

November 5, 2024

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University tuition fee rise branded 'morally wrong' - as Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson defends increase

The education secretary has said no decision has been made on whether university tuition fees will increase with inflation each year.

Bridget Phillipson has announced the maximum cap on tuition fees in England will go up in line with inflation from April 2025.

The cost of tuition will increase by £285 to £9,535 next year – the first rise in eight years.

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There will also be a rise in maximum maintenance loans to increase in line with inflation, giving an increase of £414 a year to help students with living costs.

However, the education secretary did not say if the rise would continue after that.

Speaking to Sky News’ Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge, Ms Phillipson admitted she did not know what would happen with tuition fees after April 2026.

“We’re going to look at this and the maintenance support and the sector overall as part of the reform that we intend to set out in the months to come,” she said.

“So no decision, no decision has been taken on what happens beyond this.”

She said the government will be looking at “what is required… to get our universities on a more sustainable footing… but also to deliver a better deal for students as a part of that”.

The minister said she also “intends to look at” uprating the threshold at which students need to start paying tuition fees back in line with inflation.

Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU), said the tuition fee rise was “economically and morally wrong”.

She said: “Taking more money from debt-ridden students and handing it to overpaid underperforming vice-chancellors is ill conceived and won’t come close to addressing the sector’s core issues.”

The National Union of Students (NUS) said students were being asked to “foot the bill” to keep the lights and heating on in their universities and to prevent their courses from closing down amid the “crisis”.

Alex Stanley, vice president for higher education of the NUS, said: “This is, and can only ever be, a sticking plaster.

“Universities cannot continue to be funded by an ever-increasing burden of debt on students.”

Universities have been making up for fees being frozen since 2017/18 by taking in international students who pay more.

However, student visa numbers have fallen after the previous government made it more difficult for them to come to the UK recently, so universities can no longer rely on the fees.