Nick Gibb, the driving force behind phonics and the reformed national curriculum, has kept his post at the DfE.

Mr Gibb has been the longest-serving schools minister of recent years, having first been appointed by David Cameron in 2010.

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He was sacked two years later, only to return as a minister of state in the 2014 re-shuffle that saw his former boss Michael Gove sacked as education secretary.

But Mr Gibb’s involvement in education politics stretches back further, having served as a shadow minister for education from 2005 to 2010.

Like Damian Hinds, Mr Gibb this summer supported Mr Gove’s bid for the Conservative leadership.

The former accountant is best known for his relentless focus on the use of phonics to teach children to read.

He was also a driving force overseeing the coalition government’s overhaul of the national curriculum, which saw some raise concerns that he was too involved in the detail.

In 2011, two members of the government’s four-strong panel of expert national curriculum advisers tendered their resignation.

In their letter, they alleged that thousands of “stakeholder” consultation responses “appear to be treated lightly”, whereas “significant influence” had been exercised by Mr Gibb.

The MP for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton is a hero to many education traditionalists, with his strong backing for a knowledge-rich curriculum, the use of textbooks, and the theories of American educationalist E D Hirsch.

Sir Kevan Collins, chief executive of the Education Endowment Foundation, highlighted Mr Gibb’s consistency during his time in office.

“Nick Gibb has stayed focused on a small number of core agendas and seen them through; that’s a positive,” he said.

“Things like picking up phonics and he didn’t abandon everything that had gone before, he picked it up and saw it through and stuck with it. I think that is a good thing in education and something to be admired.”

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that while many children will have benefited from the focus on phonics, it had often been “over-interpreted” as the only way of helping children to read.

He said Mr Gibb “will always be seen as Mr EBacc”, and added: “That fits in with that view that he has overstated the importance of accountability. Essentially, he is the person who is obsessed about the ‘how’ and the ‘what’ rather than the ‘why’.

“So with modern foreign languages, it’s all been this utilitarian mechanistic approach.”

Barnaby Lenon, chair of the Independent Schools Council, praised Mr Gibb’s focus on phonics.

Speaking in a personal capacity, he said: “By promoting the use of phonics for younger children he has undoubtedly raised literacy standards for early years pupils.”

Mr Lenon also said that Mr Gibb’s implementation of GCSE and A-level reforms was a success, and “as a result of this we have got GCSEs and A levels of a very high standard internationally, which is important”.