New prime minister Liz Truss has appointed Anne-Marie Trevelyan as secretary of state for transport.
The appointment follows an announcement from incumbent Grant Shapps that he would not be continuing in the role.
Ms Trevelyan, who is the MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed, and was previously secretary of state for international trade and president of The Board of Trade, said she was 'thrilled' with her new role.
Ms Trevelyan has risen quickly through the parliamentary ranks having only been first elected MP for the Berwick-upon-Tweed constituency at the 2015 general election.
Since then she has held a handful of senior posts starting with a place on the influential House of Commons’ Public Accounts Committee, making use of her training as a chartered accountant
In 2019, she was appointed minister for defence procurement, and later minister of state for the armed forces.
She then moved to secretary of state for international development, and in November 2020 was appointed the UK’s international champion on adaptation and resilience for the COP26 Presidency.
In January 2021, Anne-Marie was appointed minister for business, energy and clean growth and in September 2021, was promoted back to the Cabinet as trade secretary.
On her website she states her areas of interest 'include rural broadband, dualling the A1, continuing to bring investment to north Northumberland, and the armed forces covenant'.
Mr Shapps said In a statement on Twitter that he will be an 'independent voice on the backbenches'.
Throughout his tenure at the Department for Transport, Mr Shapps faced many crises, not least subsidising most of the transport industry throughout COVID.
He was also forced to launch an 'action plan' to deal with the controversies over smart motorways. Ms Truss has already been critical of the roads initiative, suggesting the policy had failed.
More recently he failed to engage with unions over industrial action and has been criticised over his handling of service cutbacks on the rail network.
However, he was a competent public performer for former PM Boris Johnson's government and was one of the few ministers counted on to face the media at difficult times.
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