Here are some of the key statistics and historical benchmarks from Rishi Sunak’s reshuffle of the Cabinet:
– For the first time since 2010, the top four positions in government – Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary – are all held by men: Rishi Sunak, Jeremy Hunt, James Cleverly and David Cameron respectively.
The last occasion was at the end of Gordon Brown’s Labour government, when these roles were held by Mr Brown, Alistair Darling, Alan Johnson and David Miliband respectively.
The new top four also share a similar educational background, with all attending fee-paying private schools: Winchester College in Hampshire (Rishi Sunak), Charterhouse School in Surrey (Jeremy Hunt), Colfe’s School in south London (James Cleverly) and Eton College in Berkshire (David Cameron).
Three of them attended Oxford University (Sunak, Hunt and Cameron) while James Cleverly went to the University of West London.
– The new Cabinet is slightly less diverse than the previous line-up.
The number of female Cabinet ministers has dropped from eight out of 23 (35%) to seven out of 23 (30%): Victoria Atkins (Health & Social Care Secretary), Kemi Badenoch (Business & Trade), Gillian Keegan (Education), Claire Coutinho (Energy & Net Zero), Michelle Donelan (Science & Technology), Lucy Frazer (Culture) and Penny Mordaunt (Leader of the House of Commons).
The number of non-white Cabinet ministers has also fallen, from five out of 23 (22%) to four out of 23 (17%): Rishi Sunak (Prime Minister), James Cleverly (Home Secretary), Kemi Badenoch (Business & Trade) and Claire Coutinho (Energy & Net Zero).
– Rachel Maclean, who has been sacked as housing minister, was the 15th person to hold that position since 2010.
Her predecessors were Grant Shapps (2010-12), Mark Prisk (2012-13), Kris Hopkins (2013-14), Brandon Lewis (2014-16), Gavin Barwell (2016-17), Alok Sharma (2017-18), Dominic Raab (2018), Kit Malthouse (2018-19), Esther McVey (2019-20), Chris Pincher (2020-22), Stuart Andrew (2022), Marcus Jones (2022), Lee Rowley (2022) and Lucy Frazer (2022-23).
Ms Maclean’s successor, Lee Rowley, is the 16th housing minister in 13-and-a-half years.
– For the first time in nearly 50 years, a former prime minister (Mr Cameron) is serving in the Cabinet of one of their successors (Rishi Sunak).
The last such occasion was in 1970-74, when Sir Alec Douglas-Home served as Foreign Secretary in the Conservative government led by Edward Heath, having previously himself been prime minister in 1963-64.
– Steve Barclay has become the 10th Environment Secretary since 2010.
Five people have held the role in the past four years.
The full list for the past 13 years is: Caroline Spelman (2010-12), Owen Paterson (2012-14), Liz Truss (2014-16), Andrea Leadsom (2016-17), Michael Gove (2017-19), Theresa Villiers (2019-20), George Eustice (2020-22), Ranil Jayawardena (2022), Therese Coffey (2022-23) and now Mr Barclay.
– Richard Holden is the fourth person to serve as Conservative Party chair in just over 12 months, following Greg Hands (February to November 2023), Nadhim Zahawi (October 2022 to January 2023) and Jake Berry (September to October 2022).
