Mogg out as PM Sunak reshuffles cabinet team

Jacob Rees-Mogg has left as business secretary, as Rishi Sunak reshuffles his team of cabinet ministers.

Chief whip Wendy Morton and Work and Pensions Secretary Chloe Smith, close allies of outgoing PM Liz Truss, are also out.

Simon Clarke, another Truss ally, has left his job as levelling up secretary.

He joins Justice Secretary Brandon Lewis, Welsh Secretary Robert Buckland and Environment Secretary Ranil Jayawardena in leaving the cabinet.

Kit Malthouse is also out as education secretary, whilst Jake Berry has also confirmed he is no longer Conservative Party chairman.

In other departures so far, Vicky Ford has been sacked as a development minister at the Foreign Office.

Alok Sharma has lost his job as a Cabinet Office minister, although he will remain in charge of UK preparations for the COP27 UN climate summit.

Mr Rees-Mogg, who backed Ms Truss’s leadership, is also a close ally of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

He acknowledged he was was unlikely to be kept on, as he was “far too close to Liz Truss” to work with Mr Sunak.

Speaking to BBC deputy political editor Vicki Young, he added that he would be “fully supportive” of the new prime minister.

He added that the Conservatives, who now have their third leader in seven weeks, would be “toast” unless they pulled together.

Earlier Mr Sunak warned “difficult decisions” lie ahead for his new administration, as it grapples with a “profound economic crisis”.

He said he had been elected as Tory leader to “fix” the “mistakes” made by Ms Truss, who has left after just 49 days in office.

Reports /TrainViral/