Cabinet reshuffle: Greg Hands replaces Zahawi as Conservative Party chairman as Sunak’s first reshuffle begins
Greg Hands has replaced Nadhim Zahawi as Conservative Party chairman as Rishi Sunak begins the first reshuffle of his cabinet.
Former trade policy minister Mr Hands, MP for Chelsea and Fulham, takes over the role that will involve leading the Tories through the next election, which they are currently set to lose to Labour.
His appointment comes just over a week after former chair Mr Zahawi was sacked over the handling of his tax affairs.
Mr Hands tweeted a photo of him and Rishi Sunak, both beaming, as he said he was “excited” and it was “an honour” to be asked to be chairman.
“The work starts straight away,” he added.
Asked if his taxes are in order as he arrived at Conservative headquarters after getting the job, he said: “They certainly are.”
Number 10 also confirmed business, energy and industrial strategy secretary Grant Shapps will be made energy security and net zero secretary in a newly created department.
Mr Shapps said he was “delighted” to become the first head of the new department and will focus on “securing our long-term energy supply, bringing down bills and thereby helping to halve inflation”.
Former Tory leadership contender Kemi Badenoch is to be moved from international trade secretary to business and trade secretary, taking over part of the job Mr Shapps leaves vacant and maintaining her previous role.
She will remain president of the board of trade and minister for women and equalities.
Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan is the new Secretary for Science, Innovation and Technology, another newly formed department.
And housing minister Lucy Frazer is now Culture, Media and Sport Secretary – with technology taken away from the role that Ms Donelan had.
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Shapps’ Great British Rail Sale
Who is Greg Hands?
Mr Hands is well-liked by fellow Tories and has been an MP since 2005, first in Hammersmith and Fulham, then Chelsea and Fulham since its creation in 2010.
Seen as a steady pair of hands, he has remained as a minister for the most part of the past eight years after first serving in David Cameron’s cabinet as chief secretary to the Treasury.
A staunch remainer, he was demoted by Theresa May to a junior minister at the Department for International Trade then was also made Minister for London.
He resigned in 2018 over his opposition to Heathrow’s third runway but Boris Johnson returned him to trade policy minister before promoting him to business, energy and clean growth minister.
Liz Truss made him trade policy minister days before she stepped down and Mr Sunak kept him on.
The New York and UK state-school-educated politician joined the Conservative Party as a student at Cambridge before spending eight years as a banker in London and New York.
A polyglot who speaks five European languages, Mr Hands’ gained his campaigning experience fairly early on in his political career when he had to fight for the newly formed Chelsea and Fulham seat after his constituency was split in two.
As a Tory councillor in Hammersmith and Fulham before becoming an MP, he built up a formidable reputation as a local campaigner, with an impressive knowledge for knowing local people’s names and issues they stood for, Conservative Home reported in 2014.
As party chairman, he will be in charge of helping the Tories fight the next election, which at the moment they are predicted to lose to Labour.
He also served as a whip then deputy chief whip under Mr Cameron so has experience in coordinating his fellow MPs – an essential to fight the next election.
Who is Grant Shapps?
New energy security minister Mr Shapps is seen as a safe pair of hands and a popular MP within the Conservative Party, as well as a smooth media operator.
Growing his public profile over the past few years, he has become known for his slick – some think cringeworthy – public service videos such as the “Great British Rail Sale” promoting reduced train fares.
But it was 2015 when he really earnt his stripes in Westminster as party co-chairman after he helped pull off a narrow Conservative victory despite a predicted hung parliament.
He has been the MP for Welwyn Hatfield since 2005, taking the seat off Labour after 15 years of failed attempts to become a councillor and an MP in Manchester and various London constituencies.
Mr Shapps served as a minister and co-chair under Mr Cameron, while Boris Johnson made him transport secretary and he became the shortest-serving home secretary ever last year, with just six days in the job under Liz Truss before Rishi Sunak made him business secretary.
His rise in politics has not been without controversy, including accusations of ignoring bullying allegations while co-chair that are said to have led to a young party member taking his own life.
In 2015, he admitted to having had a second job while being an MP and using pseudonyms – Michael Green, Corinne Stockheath and Sebastian Fox – for business after previously denying both.
Before becoming an MP he was a photocopier sales representative and founded his own design and print business then a web publishing business. Google blacklisted 19 of his business websites for violating copyright rules in 2012.
Mr Shapps’ latest mishap involved his office posting a picture of him with Mr Johnson photoshopped out, which he laughingly told Sky News this Sunday was a “complete screw-up”.
Who is Kemi Badenoch?
The new business and trade secretary has only been the MP for Saffron Walden since 2017 but her background as a law graduate, software engineer and in banking should have prepared her well for the new role.
A committed Brexiteer, Ms Badenoch was previously exchequer secretary to the Treasury and keeps her job as equalities minister.
She stood to replace Mr Johnson in the summer and was popular among the Tory membership, promising to “tell the truth” and advocating “strong but limited government”.
But she was eliminated in the fourth round of voting, some believed it was due to her strong stance on trans issues after her team taped “men” and “ladies” signs to the doors of gender-neutral loos.
A famine has been declared in Gaza City and the surrounding neighbourhoods.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) – a globally recognised system for classifying the severity of food insecurity and malnutrition – has confirmed just four famines since it was established in 2004.
These were in Somalia in 2011, and in Sudan in 2017, 2020, and 2024.
The confirmation of famine in Gaza City is the IPC’s first outside of Africa.
“After 22 months of relentless conflict, over half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions characterised by starvation, destitution and death,” the report said, adding that more than a million other people face a severe level of food insecurity.
Israel Gaza map
Over the next month conditions are also expected to worsen, with the famine projected to expand to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, the report said.
Nearly a third of the population (641,000 people) are expected to face catastrophic conditions while acute malnutrition is projected to continue getting worse rapidly.
Over the next year, the report said at least 132,000 children will suffer from acute malnutrition – double the organisation’s estimates from May 2024.
Israel says no famine in Gaza
Volker Turk, the UN Human Rights chief, said the famine is the direct result of actions taken by the Israeli government.
“It is a war crime to use starvation as method of warfare, and the resulting deaths may also amount to the war crime of wilful killing,” he said.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, has rejected the findings.
Israel’s foreign ministry said there is no famine in Gaza: “Over 100,000 trucks of aid have entered Gaza since the start of the war, and in recent weeks a massive influx of aid has flooded the Strip with staple foods and caused a sharp decline in food prices, which have plummeted in the markets.”
Another UN chief made a desperate plea to Israel’s prime minister to declare a ceasefire in the wake of the famine announcement.
Tom Fletcher, UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said famine could have been prevented in the strip if there hadn’t been a “systematic obstruction” of aid deliveries.
“My ask, my plea, my demand to Prime Minister Netanyahu and anyone who can reach him. Enough. Ceasefire. Open the crossings, north and south, all of them,” he said.
The IPC had previously warned famine was imminent in parts of Gaza, but had stopped short of a formal declaration.
Palestinians struggle to get aid at a community kitchen in Gaza City. Pic: AP
The latest report on Gaza from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says there were almost 13,000 new admissions of children for acute malnutrition recorded in July.
The latest numbers from the Gaza health ministry are 251 dead as a result of famine and malnutrition, including 108 children.
But Israel has previously accused Hamas of inflating these figures, saying that most of the children who died had pre-existing health conditions.
The Ukrainian suspected of coordinating attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines had served in Ukraine’s Secret Service and in the Ukrainian Army’s special forces, Sky News understand.
Serhii K., 49, was arrested in northern Italy on Thursday following the issuance of a European arrest warrant by German prosecutors.
It is not known whether he was still serving at the time of the pipeline attack in 2022 and Ukraine’s government has always denied any involvement in the explosions.
According to sources close to the case, the suspect has been found in a three-star bungalow hotel named La Pescaccia in San Clemente, in the province of Rimini.
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Man arrested over Nord Stream attacks
When military officers from Italy’s Carabinieri investigative and operational units raided his bedroom, he didn’t try to resist the arrest.
The hotel’s employees have been questioned, but no further evidence or any weapons were found, the sources added.
Serhii arrived on Italy’s Adriatic coast earlier this week, and the purpose of his trip was a holiday. He was found with his two children and his wife.
At least one of the four people within his family had a travel ticket issued in Poland. He crossed the Italian border with his car with a Ukrainian license plate last Tuesday.
He was travelling with his passport, and he used his real identity to check into the hotel, triggering an emergency alert on a police server, we have been told.
A satellite image shows gas from the Nord Stream pipeline bubbling up in the Baltic Sea. File pic: Roscosmos via Reuters
After the arrest, he was taken to the Rimini police station before being moved to a prison in Bologna, the regional capital, on Friday.
Deputy Bologna Prosecutor Licia Scagliarini has granted the German judicial authorities’ requests for Serhii’s surrender, but Sky News understands the man told the appeal court that he doesn’t consent to being handed over to Germany.
He also denied the charges and said he was in Ukraine during the Nord Stream sabotage. He added that he is currently in Italy for family reasons.
While leaving the court, he was seen making a typical Ukrainian nationalist ‘trident’ gesture to the reporters.
The next hearing is scheduled for 3 September, when the Bologna appeal court is set to decide whether Serhii will be extradited to Germany or not. He will remain in jail until then.
In Germany, he will face charges of collusion to cause an explosion, anti-constitutional sabotage and the destruction of structures.
German prosecutors believe he was part of a group of people who planted devices on the pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in September 2022.
Serhii and his accomplices are believed to have set off from Rostock on Germany’s north-eastern coast in a sailing yacht to carry out the attack.
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The explosions severely damaged three pipelines transporting gas from Russia to Europe. It represented a significant escalation in the Ukraine conflict and worsening of the continent’s energy supply crisis.
According to a US intelligence report leaked in 2023, a pro-Ukraine group was behind the attack. Yet, no group has ever claimed responsibility.
Spare pipes for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. File pic: Reuters/Fabian Bimmer
Sky News understands Genoa’s Prosecutor’s Office in northern Italy has requested their colleagues in Bologna to share the information related to Serhii.
Anti-terrorism prosecutors are investigating another alleged sabotage linked to the Russian shadow fleet oil tanker Seajewel, which sank off the port of Savona last February.
On Thursday, they asked an investigative police unit to figure out whether there is a link between that episode and the Nord Stream attacks.
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