Two Brexit ministers depart a week before EU negotiations get underway
1 min read
Two ministers at the Brexit department have left their posts in Theresa May’s post-election reshuffle – just days before negotiations with the European Union are set to begin.
David Jones has been sacked as minister of state in the department, while Lord Bridges of Headley resigned his parliamentary undersecretary post.
After Stewart Jackson – who was Brexit Secretary David Davis’s PPS – lost his seat in the election, it means there will be three new faces in the team handling negotiations with Brussels, which get underway next week.
One of those will be Baroness Anelay, who moves from the Foreign Office to become DExEU’s minister of state.
Mr Jones is one of four long-serving Conservative MPs whose departure from the Government was announced last night.
Robert Halfon, Mike Penning, and Sir Oliver Heald also left their minister of state posts in the Department for Education, Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Justice respectively.
Prominent Brexiteer Dominic Raab returns to the Government at the MoJ, while the outspoken pro-EU MP Claire Perry also makes a comeback as minister of state at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
She replaces Nick Hurd, who has moved to the Home Office.
Anne Milton and Mel Stride have been moved from the whip’s office to take posts in the Department for Education and Treasury respectively.
And Robert Goodwill, the former immigration minister, has also joined the DfE.
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