After pledging to “fix the mistakes” made by Liz Truss, Sunak cleared out senior figures from his predecessor’s cabinet including Jacob Rees-Mogg, Brandon Lewis and Chloe Smith.
Penny Mordaunt failed to improve her cabinet position despite a second run for the Tory leadership as she was reappointed leader of the Commons by the new Prime Minister.
Mordaunt will remain in her previous position despite suggestions that she was angling for a major role such as foreign secretary.
Sunak has instead decided to keep her as leader of the House, a relatively junior position in cabinet. Yesterday Mordaunt waited until the last minute to concede the leadership election to Sunak. With minutes remaining before the deadline for candidates to secure the support of 100 MPs, Mordaunt admitted that she did not have enough endorsements to make it onto the ballot.
Suella Braverman has returned to the cabinet as home secretary just a week after she was removed by Liz Truss for breaking the ministerial code.
Braverman was forced to resign as home secretary less than a week ago when she was accused of sharing sensitive government information on her private email account. Grant Shapps, who briefly replaced Braverman as home secretary, has been made business secretary.
Shapps’s move means he is the shortest-serving home secretary on record. The former transport secretary was a supporter of Sunak over the summer and an outspoken critic of Truss, until he accepted an offer to run one of the great offices of state from the former prime minister.