Michelle Donelan has become the shortest serving education secretary in history after resigning her post less than 48 hours after she was appointed.
As many expected, she has achieved the dubious honour of being the shortest-serving education secretary in history, beating Richard Law who was in for 63 days in 1945.
The former universities minister stepped into the role after the resignation of health secretary Sajid Javid and chancellor Rishi Sunak earlier this week.
Donelan’s departure after 35 hours came after the resignations of schools minister Robin Walker, children’s minister Will Quince and skills minister Alex Burghart yesterday which left the DfE with just one minister, Baroness Barran.
Since then, there has been a tidal wave of resignations and calls for Johnson to resign from all sides, including from senior cabinet figures.
The education secretary post has now been filled – for the time being – by James Cleverly, a Johnson stalwart.
Cleverly was first elected as a Conservative MP for Braintree in 2015. The role is his fifth since joining government in 2019, serving in the Department for Exiting in the EU and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.
