On the go: Suffolk Coastal MP Thérèse Coffey will take over as secretary of state for work and pensions, the government announced on Sunday, after Amber Rudd quit the role over Boris Johnson’s handling of Brexit.
Ms Rudd also resigned the Conservative whip on Saturday, in protest at the expulsion of 21 prominent Tory rebels.
“This short-sighted culling of my colleagues has stripped the party of broad-minded and dedicated Conservative MPs. I cannot support this act of political vandalism,” she wrote.
Ms Coffey, previously a minister at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, will the be the sixth politician to lead the Department for Work and Pensions since Iain Duncan Smith left the role in 2016.
A remain voter in 2016 like Ms Rudd, Ms Coffey has previously attracted attention for authoring a paper suggesting that pensioners should have to pay national insurance contributions. According to the They Work for You website, she has also voted against some gay rights bills, the smoking ban, and investigations into the Iraq war.
