Coffey leaves Defra to replace Rudd

Water minister Therese Coffey has been promoted to replace Amber Rudd as secretary of state for work and pensions.

No 10 Downing Street announced this morning (8 September) that Coffey had been appointed to head the Department of Work and Pensions.

Rudd quit her role on Saturday evening in a protest against prime minister Boris Johnson’s withdrawal of the whip from the 21 MPs, including ex-chancellor of the exchequer Phillip Hammond, who voted for legislation blocking a ‘No deal’ Brexit.

Coffey has been a junior minister at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) since 2016,

Throughout that time, the 45-year old Oxford graduate’s remit has covered flooding and water.

Before the 2017 election, the MP for Suffolk Coastal oversaw the launch of the water retail market, allowing businesses to pick their supplier.

In the Cabinet reshuffle, which followed Johnson’s victory in the Conservative leadership election, Coffey was promoted to minister of state at Defra.

Coffey’s appointment follows an announcement that the chair of the all party parliamentary group on water has joined the Liberal Democrats.

Angela Smith left the Labour Party earlier this year to help found The Independent Group of MPs, briefly holding the role of energy and environment spokeswoman before quitting the fledgling party in the wake of its disappointing European Parliament election result.

Meanwhile, on Friday, Claire Perry revealed that she was quitting as an MP.

The former energy minister will not be seeking reselection as the Conservative candidate for the Wiltshire constituency of Devizes in at the next general election.  But, she said that she looked forward to continuing to work closely with prime minister Boris Johnson in her role as President of the UN Climate COP in 2020.

In her resignation statement, the Remain backing Perry stated that she continues to support the prime minister’s approach to honouring the 2016 referendum by taking the UK out of the EU.

Perry was invited by Johnson to head the UK’s bid to host the UN climate conference in Glasgow following her resignation as energy and clean growth minister after he became prime minister in July.

Perry was appointed to minister of state for energy and clean growth with the right to attend the Cabinet by Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May following the 2017 general election.

While in the energy brief, she oversaw the publication of the clean growth strategy in late 2017 and championed progress on Carbon Capture and Storage technology, reflecting her wider enthusiasm for renewable energy.

But Perry’s reputation in green circles was tarnished by the government’s withdrawal of the Feed in Tariffs, which paid householders a guaranteed sum for electricity generated by small scale renewables, without a replacement scheme in place.