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A millionaire Tory MP - who once claimed 40p for milk - has become a cabinet minister as part of Theresa May's hastily organised reshuffle.

Boris Johnson's resignation as Foreign Secretary began a chain reaction in which Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt moved to replace him and Culture Secretary Matt Hancock was shifted to Health.

Mrs May then promoted the Attorney General Jeremy Wright to the Culture, Media, Digital and Sport brief.

This left the position of the government's lawyer open which the PM filled with Geoffrey Cox QC - who supplements his generous MP's salary with hundreds of hours of well paid work as a QC.

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

The MP for Torridge, who has raked in money doing legal work in the Cayman islands, has opposed changing the law to bring in more scrutiny of tax havens,

Mr Cox, who one of the richest MPs, he has made a habit of ridiculous expenses claims.

Although he was knocked back for trying to claim 49p for milk and £2 for tea bags, his £95 claim for a fridge, presumably to keep the milk in, was accepted.

Despite being incredibly wealthy, Mr Cox also claimed £4.99 for 'weedkiller for space in front of the constituency office' - which was rejected.

Mr Cox, who pocketed tens of thousands of pounds from legal firms in the Cayman Islands, has also strongly opposed opening up tax havens to scrutiny in a bid to curb international money laundering.

The part-time barrister has trousered £40,000 acting for companies based in the Caymans - and once represented the a British overseas territory’s Opposition Leader McKeeva Bush in a corruption trial over his use of government credit card in casinos.

Mr Cox has been MP for Torridge and West Devon since 2005, and served for several years on the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee, but resigned in October 2015 when he discovered he had failed to declare £325,000 of his outside income within the proper time.