Sajid Javid was tonight named as Chancellor as he claimed he highest-level job in Boris Johnson's reshuffle.
The Home Secretary was promoted to the second-highest job in government after a brutal cull of more than half the Cabinet.
By 6.30pm some 17 of the 30 ministers who attended Cabinet under Theresa May had either quit or been forced out.
Mr Javid ran for the leadership himself before swinging behind Mr Johnson in his race to be Prime Minister.
Meanwhile Mr Johnson's rival Jeremy Hunt was forced out after refusing to accept an alternative job to Foreign Secretary.
It was part of a seizure of top jobs by right-wingers, with Dominic Raab being named Foreign Secretary and Priti Patel, who used to support the death penalty, becoming Home Secretary.
See the full list of changes in the Cabinet reshuffle
Multi-millionaire banker Mr Javid is the first Home Secretary from an ethnic minority.
The son of a bus driver, he was elected MP for Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, in 2010 and was quickly identified a a rising star.
The former City banker sat on the work and Pensions Select Committee, then the powerful Public Accounts Committee.
Mr Javid, who comes from a Muslim background but does not practise any religion, was particularly close to Chancellor George Osborne and was appointed a Treasury Minister in September 2012.
He was elevated to the Cabinet as Culture Secretary in April of that year and became Business Secretary in May 2015 after the Tories' shock election outright victory.
He had a picture of Margaret Thatcher hanging on his wall at University.
