Patrick McLoughlin kept his place as transport secretary today, as prime minister David Cameron picked his new government’s cabinet.
Number 10 confirmed that Mr McLoughlin, MP for Derbyshire Dales, would stay in his post extending his reign as the longest serving transport secretary since Alistair Darling.
The Government has outlined plans for major transport investment and the start of HS2 construction over the next parliament, meaning Mr Cameron was always likely to keep the department in the hands of someone familiar with the brief.
Mr McLoughlin had to see off various court challenges and strong opposition to HS2 over this parliament and is well placed to oversee its initial construction in 2017.
Also at the Department for Transport (DfT), minister of state John Hayes has left to become the new minister of state for security at the Home Office, bolstering that department's right wing credentials.
Scarborough MP Robert Goodwill has been reappointed under secretary at the DfT, with a brief including aviation, HS2, road safety and walking. He is joined by Devizes MP Claire Perry who is also an under secretary and deals mainly with rail.
And Robert Goodwill, parliamentary under secretary for transport, has been replaced by Andrew Jones, MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough.
In other news Eric Pickles has left the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and has been replaced by his former minister Greg Clark.
Mr Clark is well respected in the local government sector as a key architect of the City Deals programme, which has seen funding and powers handed down to councils and combined authorities, including Manchester, which has been promised franchising powers over its local bus market.
The MP for Tunbridge Wells also helped oversee the introduction of the National Planning Policy Framework, an anti-bureaucratic reform of the planning system that was extremely controversial at the time and heavily opposed by papers normally supportive of the Conservative’s agenda, like the Telegraph.
Also new at the DCLG, James Wharton has become parliamentary under secretary of state with responsibility for the Northern Powerhouse. This role is likely to entail a transport element as improved connections through high speed rail form a major plank of the Northern Powerhouse agenda.
Some had tipped mayor of London, Boris Johnson, to be handed an infrastructure post, however he will not be made a minister but will attend separate Tory 'political cabinet' meetings.
Elsewhere Nick Boles continues as education and business minister with additional responsibility for trade union and employment law, a brief likely to bring him into conflict with transport unions over strike legisation.
The Conservative manifesto states the Party will introduce a new threshold for strike action in the health, education, fire and transport sectors, requiring industrial action to have the support of at least 40% of all those entitled to take part in the ballot – as well as a majority of those who vote.
For a full list of appointments, see here:
