Justine Greening resigned from the government on Monday after Theresa May tried to move her from her post as secretary of state for education to the Department for Work and Pensions in a cabinet reshuffle designed to reboot her government.

In a statement May said said she was “disappointed” but respected Greening’s decision. Greening was succeeded as education secretary by Damian Hinds, who was promoted from being a junior work and pensions minister.

Earlier May kept Jeremy Hunt as her health secretary with new responsibility for social care, signalling that the prime minister wants to make another attempt to reform the troubled system.

Hunt was rumoured to be moving to a new role as May’s deputy but will stay in his job to address the worsening winter crisis in the NHS and take more control over social care.

The deputy job has now been given to David Lidington, who moves from the role of justice secretary and will take over as minister for the Cabinet Office, chairing the big cabinet committees and standing in for May at prime minister’s questions.

Hunt’s new remit is a sign that May wants to return to the difficult issue of social care, after abandoning a deeply unpopular election policy to make people pay for elderly care out of the value of their property. Labour branded the policy a “dementia tax” and it was swiftly dropped after the election.

Two other cabinet ministers who were said to be facing the chop, Sajid Javid and Greg Clark, have also kept their jobs in the reshuffle. Javid’s role has been changed from communities and local government to housing, communities and local government, part of May’s attempts to focus more attention on housing issues. Clark’s job as secretary of state for business, energy and industrial policy stays the same.

Earlier, the shake-up got off to a chaotic start after an official Conservative party Twitter account announced that Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, was the new party chair, even though it was in fact Brandon Lewis who had been given the role.

No 10 also announced that Amber Rudd would remain as home secretary, Philip Hammond as chancellor and David Davis as Brexit secretary. Boris Johnson was also confirmed in his job as foreign secretary, shortly after he was seen going into Downing Street. Gavin Williamson will remain at defence. Karen Bradley became Northern Ireland secretary after James Brokenshire said he would be leaving his post for health reasons.

A No 10 announcement said Lidington, who was also formerly leader of the Commons and is a generally popular figure among Tory MPs, had been made minister for the Cabinet Office and chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. David Gauke was sent to the justice department to fill the space left by Lidington, after just six months in the role of the work and pensions secretary. Gauke, a former solicitor, is now the sixth justice secretary to fill the role since the Conservatives came to power in 2010.

While Downing Street confirmed that his new role remained a cabinet post, Lidington has not been made first secretary of state, the courtesy title that gave Green the job of May’s de facto deputy.

Green was sacked in December after an investigation found he had lied about the discovery of pornography on his office computer during a police raid in 2008. However, No 10 said Lidington would chair all the influential Cabinet Office committees formerly chaired by Green, meaning he has in effect the same job, but without the first secretary of state title.

Following the first confirmed move of the day – Brokenshire’s resignation – several reports said Grayling was being moved from being transport secretary to party chairman.



This appeared confirmed after the official Conservative Twitter account sent a photo of Grayling with the message: “Congratulations to Chris Grayling following his appointment as Conservative party chairman.”

However, this message was very quickly deleted, as reports began circulating that Lewis might get the post instead.

BBC confirming Grayling appointment but advisers saying its speculation and he hasn't been to no10 yet. The Conservatives had tweeted a congrats, though its now disappeared. What is going on!? pic.twitter.com/8GDc0RE4kS — Anushka Asthana (@GuardianAnushka) January 8, 2018

About an hour later came the announcement from Downing Street that Lewis was leaving the Home Office to become minister without portfolio and chair of the party.

It had been confirmed earlier that the incumbent party chairman, Sir Patrick McLoughlin, had stood down. He had been under pressure since the disastrous election campaign and an incident when a prankster got into the party conference to hand May a fake P45 during her main speech.

Earlier, it was announced that Brokenshire would leave. The long-time ally of May has been unable to resurrect the suspended Northern Ireland assembly following a political collapse after a scandal over a botched green heating subsidy scheme.



In an exchange of letters released by No 10, Brokenshire told May he had a small lesion on his right lung that would require surgery.

Brokenshire wrote that he had hoped to continue in the job: “I recognise, however, that as a result of my forthcoming surgery I will not be able to give the effort, energy and complete focus needed at this important time if we are to secure the positive outcomes both you and I are committed to achieving.”

May wrote back to say she was “sorry to hear about your medical situation” and accepted his resignation.

James Brokenshire. Photograph: Jack Taylor/Getty Images

James Cleverly, the MP for Braintree, elected in 2015, has been appointed as the Tory party’s deputy chair, the party’s media account tweeted. It also said Chris Skidmore, the constitution minister, had been named vice-chair for policy, with Ben Bradley and Kemi Badenoch – who both entered parliament in June – made vice-chairs for youth and candidates respectively. Bradley is 27. Maria Caulfield was named vice-chair for women.

The wholesale revamp of Conservative party operations, widely expected ahead of the reshuffle, gave vice-chair roles to a series of other MPs: Rehman Chishti and Helen Grant for communities; Andrew Jones for business engagement; Marcus Jones for local government; and James Morris for training.

The appointments marked a demotion for Skidmore, Andrew Jones and Marcus Jones, all of whom have lost ministerial jobs with the move. Skidmore has left the Cabinet Office, while Andrew Jones was a junior Treasury minister and Marcus Jones has gone from being local government minister to the unpaid job of party vice-chair for the same area.