PM Theresa May makes more ministerial changes

PM Theresa May has been unveiling more junior ministerial appointments as she continues to shape her administration.

Anna Soubry, business minister and prominent Remain campaigner, pensions minister Baroness Altmann and justice minister Dominic Raab have left the government, No 10 said.

Penny Mordaunt and Mike Penning become ministers at the Department for Work and Pensions and Ministry of Defence.

Sir Oliver Heald is promoted to become a minister in the Ministry of Justice.

Baroness Altmann, who also resigned, was made a peer and appointed minister for pensions by David Cameron in 2015 after a carving a career out of fighting for older people’s rights.

In her resignation letter to Mrs May, Baroness Altmann said that her efforts to improve pensions policy over the past year had been thwarted by “short-term political considerations”.

She called for more help for women forced to work longer by the government’s decision to raise their retirement age.

“I am not convinced the government adequately addressed the hardship facing women who have had their state pension age increased at relatively short notice,” she said.

And she said that to tackle the “crisis” in social care funding, the government should develop a “one nation” lifetime pension.

The current “ineffective and complex” system for encouraging people to save for their retirement through tax breaks “disproportionately” favours the wealthy and leaves lower earners “seriously disadvantaged”, she said.

Ms Soubry tweeted to say she had handed in her resignation on Friday.

Other people to leave the government include Ed Vaizey, culture minister in former Prime Minister David Cameron’s administration, who tweeted to say he would be supporting from the back benches.

Meanwhile, Ms Mordaunt, who was previously an Armed Forces minister and a vocal Brexit supporter, made headlines earlier in the year when she said that it was “very likely” Turkey would join the European Union in the next eight years.

And Mr Penning, who has served alongside Mrs May at the Home Office, was previously a policing minister.

Other ministerial appointments include:

Brandon Lewis as Minister of State for Policing and the Fire Service at the Home Office

Rt Hon Matt Hancock as Minister of State responsible for digital policy at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Jane Ellison MP as Financial Secretary to the Treasury

Jo Johnson as joint Minister of State at the Department for Education and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, leading on universities and science

Rt Hon John Hayes as Minister of State at the Department for Transport

Damian Hinds MP as Minister of State for the Department of Work and Pensions

Rt Hon Greg Hands MP as Minister of State in the Department for International Trade

Robert Goodwill MP as Minister of State for immigration in the Home Office

Philip Dunne MP as Minister of State in the Department of Health

Nick Hurd MP as Minister of State in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Lord Price as Minister of State at the Department for International Trade

On Thursday Mrs May completed appointing her cabinet, in what was seen as a major departure from the top team put together by her predecessor David Cameron.

George Osborne, Michael Gove, John Whittingdale, Nicky Morgan and Oliver Letwin were all sacked, meanwhile Liz Truss became justice secretary, Justine Greening took over at education and Tory leadership contender Andrea Leadsom was promoted to environment secretary.

Former London mayor, and face of the Leave campaign Boris Johnson, became foreign secretary, and Philip Hammond was made chancellor.

Amber Rudd – formerly the energy secretary – took over Mrs May’s former role as home secretary.

Eurosceptic David Davis, meanwhile, took charge of negotiating Britain’s exit from the European Union, in the newly-created post of Brexit secretary.

Former minister Liam Fox returned to the government to head the newly created Department for International Trade.