Following the post-election Cabinet reshuffle John Hayes has been reappointed as minister of state at the Department for Transport, while Jesse Norman MP was appointed parliamentary under secretary along with Lord Callanan.
Secretary of state Chris Grayling retained his position as did under secretary Paul Maynard. Lord Ahmad has moved to the Foreign Office, while Andrew Jones has left for the Treasury.
John Hayes MP
Mr Hayes is MP for South Holland and The Deepings and is well regarded in the House for bringing some wit and panache to the job. He has held a long list of ministerial and shadow ministerial posts and boasts of joining the Conservatives at 14.
Mr Hayes made a notable speech last time he was in the DfT on the subject of 'beautiful roads', stating the importance of making roads work in harmony with their surroundings and calling for 'a new vision for roads and the architectural features on and around them'.
Jesse Norman MP
He said: 'Much modern architecture fails precisely because it rejects those principles of design that time has taught us delight the senses. Where modern design does succeed, it is often by accident, or because, where form has at least followed function, a building has a high degree of utility.
'But this is not, as Edmund Burke noted long ago in an early work on aesthetics, the same as beauty. Burke understood that there is a great deal in common in what people find beautiful. But this is not related to utility; our appreciation of beauty is an effect "previous to any knowledge of use".'
This should at least give him something to talk about with the new boy.
Lord Callanan
Mr Norman, MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire, wrote a book on Burke entitled ‘Edmund Burke: politician, philosopher, prophet’, which was listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Political Book Awards and the George Orwell Prize.
Lord Callanan worked in local government and as an MEP for the North East before becoming a life peer. He appears to be the only one in the team with any engineering experience although as he worked as a project engineer at Scottish and Newcastle breweries from 1986 to 1998, it is unclear if this will be of any help given Theresa's May sober brand of politics.
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