London. Grant Shapps, one of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s most ardent supporters in the British cabinet, was named Britain’s new defense minister on Thursday. Along with this, Sunak made a minor cabinet reshuffle ahead of the next year’s general elections. Earlier in the day, Ben Wallace formally resigned as Defense Minister for personal reasons. He had announced his plans to resign only last month. He held this position for four years, during which he also commanded the military response to the war in Ukraine.
Shapps, who supported Sunak during his campaign for leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister last year, has been a member of the cabinet since 2019. He most recently served as the Minister for Energy Security and Net Zero in the Department of Energy. The new post of Defense Minister will be his fifth stint as a minister within a year, having previously served as Transport Minister and for some time as Home Minister. Shapps, 54, posted on X after meeting the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street: “I am honored to be appointed Defense Secretary by Rishi Sunak.
“I want to acknowledge the tremendous contribution Ben Wallace has made to UK defense and global security over the past four years.” Claire Coutinho, another Sunak ally and junior minister of Indian origin, replaced Shapps at the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero. The Education Minister will take charge of energy security, which will be her first Cabinet post since being elected a Tory MP in 2019. Coutinho, 38, is a London-born Oxford University graduate whose immigrant parents are of Goan origin.
When Sunak worked in the Ministry of Finance, Coutinho was his subordinate. Conservative MP David Johnson will take over as his former junior minister at the Department for Education. In a letter to Sunak tendering his resignation, Wallace said: “The investment you made in the defense sector as Chancellor (Finance Minister) and the continued support you showed as Prime Minister have made it possible for the UK to strengthen the Ministry of Defence.” Has been important.
I am personally very grateful for your leadership. He said, “As I complete my term, I can assess that the Defense Ministry I leave is now a more modern, better funded and more confident organization than the one I left behind. Took over in 2019.”
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