Theresa May’s new year reshuffle was thrown off course when senior members of the cabinet refused to move and Justine Greening quit the government after turning down a job as work and pensions secretary.
Earlier, Jeremy Hunt rejected a new position as business secretary and instead persuaded the prime minister to allow him to remain at health in a beefed-up role taking on more responsibility for social care.
That meant that a planned move for Greg Clark did not go ahead, and he instead remained at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
The result was a less dramatic shake-up than planned on a day that began with a social media gaffe in which the Conservatives’ official Twitter feed wrongly congratulated Chris Grayling for becoming party chair. In fact, Patrick McLoughlin was replaced by Brandon Lewis, the Great Yarmouth MP, and Grayling remained as transport secretary.
Greening spent more than two hours inside No 10 before refusing to take up a role at the helm of the Department for Work and Pensions and being removed as education secretary.
The Putney MP’s resistance followed days of newspaper reports suggesting she was facing the sack. A government source said: “Justine was offered DWP but declined to take it. The prime minister is disappointed but respects her decision to leave government.”
Greening, who is seen as on the modernising wing of the Conservative party, was praised by the party’s leader in Scotland, Ruth Davidson, and backbencher, Heidi Allen.
Davidson said she was sorry to see the minister go
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