Robert Jenrick back in government as Liz Truss picks junior ministers

Former Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick is back in government as Liz Truss begins appointing her junior ministers.

Mr Jenrick, who was sacked from the cabinet last year by then-PM Boris Johnson, returns to the frontbenches as a health minister.

Mark Spencer, who served as chief whip under Mr Johnson, becomes an environment minister.

On Tuesday, Ms Truss cleared her cabinet of figures who supported Rishi Sunak, her leadership rival.

Promotions were given to allies such as Kwasi Kwarteng and Therese Coffey.

Former Brexit minister Steve Baker joins the Northern Ireland Office, where he will face a number of pressing tasks including trying to fix the Northern Ireland Protocol and the breakdown of power-sharing in the Stormont government.

Ms Truss's press secretary said the changes would "unify" the Tory Party and pointed to senior roles for five of her leadership rivals: Suella Braverman as home secretary, Tom Tugendhat as security minister, Kemi Badenoch as trade secretary, Penny Mordaunt as leader of the Commons, and Nadhim Zahawi as chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

Long-serving secretaries of state who supported Mr Sunak including Dominic Raab, Grant Shapps and George Eustice were fired and have returned to the backbenches.

However, Ms Truss has given junior roles in government to Mr Jenrick and Mr Spencer, who are a number of Sunak supporters given ministerial jobs.

Mr Spencer is still awaiting the results of an inquiry into claims by MP Nus Ghani that he said her Muslim faith was a reason for her being sacked in 2020.

The former chief whip has said the claims are completely false.

Ms Ghani herself has been given a job in the business department.

Ms Truss has also appointed Rachel Maclean as justice minister and Victoria Prentis becomes a minister in the work and pensions department.

Other appointments include:

In her first full day as prime minister, Ms Truss has also held a meeting with her new cabinet and attended prime minister's questions where she rejected calls to extend a windfall tax on oil and gas.