New care minister Gillian Keegan replaces Helen Whately to take on 'significant challenges'

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has appointed former Skills minister Gillian Keegan as the country’s new care minister as part of his cabinet reshuffle to replace Helen Whately who will take up a Treasury post.

Former Apprenticeships and Skills minister Gillian Keegan was appointed as a junior minister at the Department for Education in February 2020.

Car factory apprentice turned MP

Ms Keegan grew up in Liverpool and is the Conservative MP for Chichester. She has been an MP continuously since 8 June 2017.

Having left school at 16 with 10 GCSEs, she once told MPs of how near her home "there were no sixth forms in any of the schools, so there was nowhere to go actually with my new found academic greatness".

The teenager decided to work as an apprentice in a car factory in Kirkby. Working as an apprentice at Delco Electronics, a subsidiary of General Motors, she was employed for seven years on what would be described today as a degree apprenticeship - working and taking evening classes to get a Business Studies degree at Liverpool John Moores University. She then worked for 27 years in international business.

Speaking of her appointment as care minister, Gillian Keegan tweeted: "I am honoured to have been asked by @BorisJohnson to join the @DHSCgovuk.

“There are significant challenges ahead and I am looking forward to working closely with @sajidjavid and the team to get stuck in."

Her predecessor Helen Whately will now work with Chancellor Rishi Sunak in a junior minister role as Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury.

In a tweet posted last night, Helen Whately said: "Delighted to be appointed Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury. I’m looking forward to working with @RishiSunak @SimonClarkeMP @LucyFrazerMP, @JohnGlenUK and Lord Agnew and the @hmtreasury team to boost growth across the UK, level up the economy and hit our net zero commitments.”

Helen Whately has held the post of Minister for Care from February 2020 and frequently came under fire for government decisions concerning social care early in the pandemic while frontline care staff battled to save lives.

As a guest for the podcast ‘Let’s Talk About Care’, Ms Whately said: “There were times... I thought I could do with a few hours off”.

Of her first few weeks in the job, the ex-care minister said: “That was also the point at which the pandemic was 'taking off'… with people dying of Covid in care homes. My focus was on what were the things [the] government could do from our position."

Far from admitting the government failed to deliver what the care sector needed early on in the pandemic, the minister said: “It took us a while to be able to get to where we are today where we are able to supply the whole of the social care sector with the PPE that it needs. People wanted more tests, it took us a while as a country to build up our testing capacity.”

Disabilities minister Justin Tomlinson leaves job

The cabinet reshuffle has led to Justin Tomlinson losing his job as minister for disabled people at the Department for Work and Pensions - a role he was given by three Prime Ministers.

Chloe Smith is the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work. Mr Tomlinson announced on Twitter that he is now the deputy chairman of the Conservative party.

Mr Tomlinson tweeted: “Thank you to the three PMs who have given me the opportunity to serve as the Minister for Disabled People. I am exceptionally proud to have delivered the National Disability Strategy, record disability employment and scrapping the SRTI six-month rule.”

The controversial rule had determined that terminally ill people wanting access special government benefits could only get it if they were expected to die within six months. Campaigners said the rule discriminated against those with unpredictable conditions like motor-neurone disease. The government recently decided to abolish the rule from next year.

The Conservative MP for North Swindon also said the current health and disability green paper "will transform the use of supportive evidence, advocacy, the assessment process and appeals for those seeking support. The number one ask of me as a minister, especially from young disabled people was to 'have the same opportunities their friends take for granted' - this drove everything I did.”