Gillian Keegan has become the fifth education secretary in four months after being appointed to the role by new prime minister Rishi Sunak today.
Ms Keegan follows Kit Malthouse, James Cleverly, Michelle Donelan and Nadhim Zahawi, who have all held the role since the start of July.
Mr Malthouse, her predecessor, lasted just seven weeks in the job after being appointed in early September.
Ms Keegan, a former skills minister, has been MP for Chichester in West Sussex since 2017.
She has also served as minister of state for care and mental health, and a junior minister in the Foreign Office.
She attended a state secondary school in Merseyside.
Gillian Keegan must deliver manifesto commitments
Since Mr Zahawi was promoted to chancellor on 5 July, no minister has managed to hold down the education brief for more than two months.
The new secretary of state will be expected to help the government deliver on the 2019 Conservative manifesto on which former prime minister Boris Johnson was elected, according to a speech by Mr Sunak this morning.
In the speech, Mr Sunak said this included “better schools”.
The schools section of the 2019 manifesto included the heading “invest in our schools”, and committed to delivering a £30,000 teacher starting salary, backing heads to use exclusions, expanding alternative provision schools, continuing to build more free schools, and investing in arts, music and sport.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed Ms Keegan to her role, but said the fact that she was the fifth education secretary in four months was “farcical”.
“This revolving door shows a complete disregard for the importance of what should be a key government post, and it must stop,” he said.
“Education matters more than this. It is a vital public service. Schools and colleges deserve stable political leadership which addresses the crucial issues of inadequate funding and severe staff shortages caused by a government which has undervalued the workforce and sapped its morale.”
