Gibb and Halfon back at the Department for Education
Katy Morton
Thursday, October 27, 2022
Nick Gibb and Robert Halfon have returned as ministers at the Department for Education (DfE) in the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s ministerial reshuffle.
The Prime Minister has appointed Gibb and Halfon to the DfE, however their roles and responsibilities have yet to be confirmed.
The appointments come after Gillian Keegan was made education secretary earlier this week.
Gibb, MP for Bognor regis & Littlehampton, was previously minister for school standards from 2015 until September 2021, serving under Prime Minister’s Theresa May and Boris Johnson. He also held the same role under David Cameron’s government, back in 2012. Prior to that, he was shadow minister for schools.
Halfon (pictured below), who is chair of the Education Select Committee and MP for Harlow (Essex), held the position of skills minister from July 2016 to June 2017.
The appointments come as reports suggest the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, is planning a number of education reforms, including introducing a new British Baccalaureate – a policy he put forward during his leadership bid over the summer.
The Times reported a Downing Street source saying that ‘investment in education and skills is an absolute priority’ for Sunak.
Labour’s shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson has however criticised the proposed plans, claiming that the ‘Conservative Government has no new ideas about how to raise standards of education after 12 years of failing children.’
