Reshuffle confusion as Brandon Lewis replaces Patrick McLoughlin as Tory party chair
2 min read
Theresa May was left humiliated today after the Conservatives wrongly announced that Chris Grayling was replacing Patrick McLoughling as party chairman.
In an embarrassing bungle, the Tory official Twitter account offered its "congratulations" to Mr Grayling on getting the job.
But within minutes the tweet was deleted as it emerged that immigration minister Brandon Lewis had got the job instead.
Sir Patrick - who had been chairman since 2016 - had been widely-tipped for the sack in the wake of the Tories' disastrous election result.
He managed to cling on, but came under more pressure after a major breach of security at the Conservative conference in October, when a prankster managed to hand Theresa May a mock P45 while she was delivering her keynote speech.
Sir Patrick, a former miner, was first brought into Government under Margaret Thatcher when he landed a junior ministerial role in the Department for Transport.
He worked his way up to become Transport Secretary under David Cameron and was handed the chairman job by Mrs May after she took over in Downing Street in the wake of the EU referendum.
Great Yarmouth MP Mr Lewis first joined the Government under David Cameron as a junior minister in the Department for Communities and Local Government in 2012.
He moved to the Home Office in July 2016 and took the immigration brief in June last year.
The working class MP, who is popular with his parliamentary colleagues, will be tasked with re-connecting the Tories with younger voters and boosting party membership numbers.
Mr Lewis's deputy is likely to be James Cleverly, who became an MP in 2015 and is seen as a rising star within the party.
Mr Grayling's future, meanwhile, is unclear. He has suffered a difficult start to 2018 after it emerged he was out of the country on the day rail passengers saw their ticket prices hiked.
He headed to Qatar for talks with top politicians and business leaders - but Labour accused him of "hiding".
In other Cabinet moves, Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire resigned from government for health reasons.
Keep up to date with all the New Year reshuffle moves as they happen by clicking here for our live grid.
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