Kit Malthouse has been made education secretary in Liz Truss’s government, making him the fifth person to hold the post in a year.
The qualified chartered accountant, who was educated at Liverpool College when it was still an independent school, will replace James Cleverly who was appointed to the role by Boris Johnson in July.
As Mr Malthouse was leaving Downing Street last night, he said the education gig was “the most important job in Whitehall” although some Twitter users asked why education was only the 15th post to be announced.
His appointment was welcomed by Geoff Barton, general secretary of the ASCL school leaders’ union, who called upon him to tackle the “dire funding situation” and teacher shortages.
The MP for North West Hampshire attended Sudley County Primary school, a state primary, and studied politics and economics at Newcastle University.
He is a seasoned politician with varied ministerial experience, but little in education.
He was most recently Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster between 7 July 2022 and 6 September 2022.
Prior to that he took a variety of ministerial roles in housing, policing, family support and child maintenance.
While PM Boris Johnson was on holiday this summer, Malthouse was responsible for coordinating the government’s response to the extreme heatwave in July, and was criticised for telling schools to stay open.
Malthouse, who has three children, also runs his own podcast “The Maltcast” where he talks about issues faced by his constituency and nationwide.
He is also active on Twitter, recently criticising the imposing new Paddington Square building in London as an “excrescence”.
He also playfully tagged the now former transport secretary Grant Shapps into a tweet about an inflatable plane.