New Prime Minister Liz Truss has appointed one of the Humber MPs to a key role in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Graham Stuart becomes Minister for Climate in the new government, and will attend Cabinet meetings. Jacob Rees-Mogg has been appointed Business and Energy Secretary, following Kwasi Kwarteng’s elevation to Chancellor - the role vacated by Rishi Sunak that sparked the downfall of Boris Johnson earlier this summer.
Mr Stuart, who represents Beverley and Holderness, was first elected in 2005, having previously served as a local councillor in Cambridge, where he went to university and chaired the Cambridge University Conservative Association. In government he has chaired the Education Select Committee, served as assistant whip to Theresa May and went on to spend three years in international trade roles.
Earlier this summer he was made Minister for Europe, and had been a remainer, setting out his stall ahead of the 2016 referendum.
With his constituency tied into the energy estuary he has taken a keen interest in renewables developments, and has sailed out to Humber Gateway offshore wind farm - the closest to the East Yorkshire coast, and visited Drax, the huge former coal-fired power station that is behind a huge shift to Net Zero with bioenergy, carbon capture and storage tapping into region-wide plans.
It comes as stakeholders in the region have called for the restating of the renewables ambition and targets pushed by Mr Johnson, with a particular focus on offshore wind and green hydrogen - with the Humber poised to play a monumental part in both.
Responding to the announcement, Richard Gwilliam, chair of the Humber Energy Board and head of cluster development at Drax, said: "It is great to see Humber MP Graham Stuart appointed to the new cabinet with responsibility for climate. I look forward to working with him to deliver the world’s first net zero industrial cluster in our region."
Alok Sharma has retained his COP26 presidency.
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