Cabinet reshuffle sees Gove and Truss moved out of education

• Nicky Morgan new education secretary
• Elizabeth Truss promoted to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
• Sam Gyimah appointed as parliamentary under secretary of state for education
• Nick Gibb returns as a schools minister
• Nick Boles now minister of state for business and education

The Prime Minister David Cameron has promoted Nicky Morgan to replace Michael Gove as secretary of state for education. Gove has been named as the new Commons chief whip.

Nicky Morgan will continue in her role as minister for women.

Ms Morgan has served as Conservative MP for Loughborough since 2010. She became economic secretary to the Treasury in October 2013, and was given the right to attend Cabinet as women's minister and financial secretary three months ago.

In an interview with Nursery World last month, the new secretary of state for education said she recognised that high-quality, affordable childcare can make a huge difference in supporting working mothers.

Mr Cameron has also confirmed that Elizabeth Truss, the former education and childcare minister, will replace Owen Patterson as the new secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs.

The former Just Learning nursery owner Michael Fallon has been named as secretary of state for defence.

Conservative MP Michael Fallon co-owned the nursery group with Duncan Bannatyne, before it was acquired by Busy Bees in 2012.

Greg Clark replaces David Willetts as minister for science and universities.

Nick Boles is now minister of state for the business and education departments, covering further education, skills and lifelong learning. Part of his brief will be 'equal marriage implementation'. He replaces Matthew Hancock, who is the new minister of state for business, enterprise and energy.

Sam Gyimah has been named as the parliamentary under secretary of state for education.

The Prime Minister has also announced that Nick Gibb is returning to the Department for Education as minister for schools. David Cameron tweeted:

'Nick Gibb returns to Government as Minister of State for Schools - working with Nicky Morgan to ensure no let up in education reforms.'

It is unclear whether Gibb's role will include childcare or whether there will be another appointment.

Teaching unions have welcomed the changes.

Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), said, 'Michael Gove has clearly lost the support of the profession and parents for justifiable reasons. His vision for education is simply wrong. His pursuit of the unnecessary and often unwanted free schools and academies programme, the use of unqualified teachers, the failure to address the school place crisis and endless ill-thought out reforms to examinations and the curriculum have been his hallmark in office.

'Michael Gove’s search for headlines over speaking to the profession has clearly angered teachers. We remain in dispute over the direction of Government policy, which we believe is undermining the education service.

'We will be seeking a very early meeting with Nicky Morgan, the incoming education secretary, and we look forward to not only a new personality but a more conciliatory approach, one that demonstrates an improvement in policy for children, teachers and young people.'

Deborah Lawson, general secretary of Voice the union, said, 'Both Michael Gove and Elizabeth Truss, while polite and courteous in person, were notorious for failing to listen to the views of education and early years professionals. Regardless of the weight of evidence presented to them, they would follow their own agenda, often denouncing those who held a different view as ‘the enemy’, ‘misguided’ and so forth.

'As a consequence, Michael Gove was the most divisive and unpopular education secretary for a generation.

'We hope that the new secretary of state and her team of ministers, both new and ongoing, will be more receptive to the views of professionals and those who represent them, and will work with them to develop policies instead of imposing policies to be implemented.

'We look forward to meeting with her and her team and working positively with them. This is an opportunity for a fresh start.'

 More to follow…