Who is serving in Liz Truss’s cabinet?

Liz Truss holds her first cabinet meeting after taking office at Downing Street

(Image credit: Jeremy Selwyn/Pool/Getty Images)

last updated 7 September 2022

Liz Truss held the first meeting of her new cabinet today after appointing her top table of ministers last night.

The new team are working to “finalise a multi-billion package to freeze energy bills after a brutal Cabinet cull”, said the London Evening Standard.

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Chris Mason, the BBC’s political editor, called it a “near-total purge” of those who backed her rival Rishi Sunak. The prime minister’s “desire for loyalty and building a government in her own image runs the risk of provoking rebellion down the track”, he added.

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The sacking of Dominic Raab, who had been deputy prime minister and justice secretary, was “widely predicted”, said The Times, after he called Truss’s plans for tax cuts an “electoral suicide note”. But the “ruthless removal of other Sunak supporters”, such as Grant Shapps and Steve Barclay, “was not expected”, said the paper.

The Telegraph called it the “most diverse Cabinet in history with no white males in top jobs”. Kwasi Kwarteng, who has Ghanaian heritage, is chancellor; James Cleverly, whose mother is from Sierra Leone, is foreign secretary; and Suella Braverman, whose parents are of Indian origin, is home secretary.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace is “one of the few members of the Cabinet to keep his old job”, said The Telegraph.

As business secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg will oversee the energy and industrial strategy to the “dismay of climate campaigners”, said The Independent. Rees-Mogg, who has “previously expressed climate and net-zero sceptic views”, will “lead the department responsible for the country’s strategy to reach net zero emissions by mid-century”, it said.

Overall, Truss’s “first cabinet has demonstrated the importance which she places on loyalty”, said James Heale, The Spectator’s diary editor. With her “most loyal lieutenants in key roles”, Truss has a “clear parliamentary faction around her, something that she will hope will be invaluable in navigating the choppy storms that lie ahead”.

The new cabinet