Michelle Donelan has resigned as education secretary after just one working day in the post.
Her resignation came this morning just ahead of news that Boris Johnson had agreed to stand down as prime minister.
Ms Donelan was only appointed to the post on Wednesday night to succeed Nadhim Zahawi, who was made chancellor following the resignation of Rishi Sunak.
Her departure means there are now no ministers from the House of Commons in the Department for Education after the resignations yesterday of schools minister Robin Walker, children’s minister Will Quince and skills minister Alex Burghart.
The academies minister who serves in the House of Lords, Baroness Barran, is now the only minister left in the department.
Today in the Parliament the paymaster general Michael Ellis was asked whether Ms Donelan would receive a normal ministerial settlement for departing her role.
Labour MP Sarah Owen said: “Will the paymaster general confirm whether the now former secretary of state for education will be getting the standard severance package for secretary of states of three months salary for a job she did for just 36 hours.”
In response Mr Ellis said: “Matters such as pay and renumeration are set in statute not a matter for me.”
Ms Donelan has said on social media this morning that if it is the case that she receives this payment she will donate it to charity.
Michelle Donelan quits after one day as education secretary
In Ms Donelan’s letter of resignation, prompted by the fallout from the scandal over former deputy chief whip Chris Pincher, she said that she was “very worried about the prospect of no ministers in the department as we approach results’ day”, and that the “impact on students is real”.
But she added that, nonetheless, she had pleaded with the prime minister on Wednesday to do the “right thing” for the country and resign, and that both the country and the Conservative Party were “more important than any one person”.
“In life we must always do what we believe is right,” she said in her letter to Mr Johnson.
“Above all, I am here to serve the British public.
With great sadness I must resign from government. pic.twitter.com/tQUf5oVHAa
- Michelle Donelan MP (@michelledonelan) July 7, 2022
“I see no way that you can continue in post, but without a formal mechanism to remove you it seems that the only way that this is possible is for those of us who remain in Cabinet to force your hand.”
Ms Donelan said that Mr Johnson had put colleagues in an “impossible position” and that, as someone who “values integrity above all else”, she had no other choice but to leave post.
Caroline Johnson, vice-chairwoman of the Conservative Party and a member of the Commons Education Select Committee, also left her post on Thursday morning, writing to Mr Johnson that the “cumulative effect of your errors of judgement and domestic actions have squandered the goodwill of our great party”.
Earlier this morning, Mr Zahawi urged Mr Johnson to resign in the wake of the Pincher scandal, which has caused multiple resignations across government.
Mr Zahawi was appointed chancellor on Wednesday following the resignation of Mr Sunak.
However, he withdrew support from the prime minister this morning and called on him to go as pressure mounted on Mr Johnson to quit.
