Barclay appointed environment secretary after Coffey quits

Therese Coffey has been replaced as environment secretary of state by Steve Barclay after a bruising year in the post.

Coffey, who has held the environment portfolio since Rishi Sunak formed his first government last October, announced earlier this afternoon (Monday 13 November) that she was resigning as the prime minister embarked on a wide-ranging Cabinet reshuffle.

She is being replaced by Barclay, who has held a series of Cabinet roles since being appointed as Brexit secretary of state in 2018. Most recently, he has served as secretary of state for health, grappling with strikes across the NHS.

The new role is being seen as a demotion for Barclay, who has little track record on environmental issues.

As MP for North East Cambridgeshire, he has recently called for an end to “uncertainty” over plans by Anglian Water to build a new reservoir in his constituency. Barclay has also been criticised by local Liberal Democrats for voting against tougher action against water companies on sewage dumping.

The Lib Dems have also raised concerns that Barclay’s wife is a senior executive at Anglian Water. Karen Barclay has spent the past five years at Anglian, most recently as head of major infrastructure planning and stakeholder engagement.

The party’s rural affairs spokesperson Tim Farron said: “Ministers’ spouses do of course have the right to their own careers, but I do worry about the possible conflict of interest here for the man charged with forcing the water companies to clean up their act.

“We need to make sure the secretary of state is fully committed to doing everything in his power to stop the sewage scandal.”

In a blog posted following the appointment, former Defra (Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) permanent secretary Jill Rutter writes that her old department is used to a rapid turnover of its secretaries of state.

“Defra is often used as a parking place for someone who the PM needs or wants to keep in the Cabinet but not in a role that matters to them’.

The department’s ex-top civil servant adds that Coffey has “not made many friends since becoming Defra secretary” and has looked “vulnerable”.

The latter’s watch has seen concerns spiral over sewage overspills into England’s rivers and last summer’s snap resignation of Thames Water chief executive Sarah Bentley.

Coffey also served at Defra as water minister from 2016 to 2019 before being promoted to secretary of state for work and pensions by Boris Johnson. She then rose to deputy prime minister in the short lived government of Liz Truss, who she is a close ally of.

Among the achievements listed in her resignation letter to Sunak, Coffey identified the publication of the government’s ‘Plan for Water’.

The reshuffle, which was sparked by Sunak’s sacking of home secretary Suella Braverman which paved the way for David Cameron to make an unlikely return to government as he takes up the foreign secretary post.

The reshuffle also saw housing minister Rachel Maclean relieved of her duties with her replacement Lee Rowley taking up the post.