Penny Mordaunt has been appointed as minister of state at the Department for International Trade after Boris Johnson reshuffled the main cabinet positions yesterday.

Michael Ellis will take on Ms Mordaunt’s former role as paymaster general at the Cabinet Office.

One of the top changes saw Liz Truss getting the foreign secretary brief, bumping out Dominic Raab to become justice secretary after he was heavily criticised for being on holiday as the Taliban took Afghanistan.

In 2020, Mr Raab deputised for Mr Johnson while the prime minister was treated in intensive care with COVID-19.

And he will now formally take on the role as deputy prime minister after the position was revived by the PM.

The promotion of Ms Truss from international trade secretary – taken over by Anne-Marie Trevelyan – means two of the top four jobs are now held by women after Priti Patel kept her home secretary role.

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The reshuffle also saw Gavin Williamson lose his job as education secretary after overseeing the exams fiasco during the pandemic as he was replaced by vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi.

Leading Tory MP Michael Gove has been tasked with housing, communities and local government, pushing Robert Jenrick onto the backbenches.

Party co-chair Amanda Milling was also ousted just weeks before the Conservative Party’s annual conference, as was Robert Buckland from his justice secretary role.

Stephen Barclay has taken Mr Gove’s role as chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Cabinet Office minister.

And bestselling author and former I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! star Nadine Dorries was promoted to culture secretary, moving Oliver Dowden to Conservative Party co-chair and cabinet minister without portfolio.

Making her first appearance in the new role in the Commons on Thursday morning, Ms Dorries thanked colleagues for the “warm welcome”.

Wednesday saw the PM make a flurry of ministerial changes, with more expected to follow on Thursday.

Reacting to his change of role, Mr Raab said he was “delighted” at being appointed justice secretary and looked forward to “delivering on the prime minister’s commitment to cut crime, reduce reoffending and protect the public”.

In a Twitter post on Wednesday afternoon in which he revealed his departure from the cabinet, Mr Williamson said it had “been a privilege to serve as education secretary since 2019” and that he was “particularly proud of the transformational reforms I’ve led in post-16 education”.

Former justice secretary Mr Buckland also posted a letter he had sent to the PM on Twitter to confirm his departure from cabinet.

My letter to the Prime Minister pic.twitter.com/lelqRR3L86

He said he was looking to “the next adventure” and that he was “deeply proud of everything I have achieved” after serving in government for the past seven years.

In his departure letter, Mr Buckland noted that “years of underfunding” had not helped the legal system recover from the backlog caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Opposition MPs including Mother of the House of Commons Harriet Harman thanked Mr Buckland for his work on the Domestic Abuse Bill which became law earlier this year.

Mr Jenrick, who last year was at the centre of a row over planning approval granted to a Conservative donor, tweeted that it had been a “huge privilege” to have led the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).

“Thank you to everyone at the department for their hard work, dedication and friendship. I’m deeply proud of all we achieved,” he added.

“I will continue to support the prime minister and the government in every way I can.”

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