Chris Heaton-Harris is new chief whip and Jacob Rees-Mogg minister for Brexit opportunities – reshuffle as it happened

Newly appointed chief whip Chris Heaton-Harris (left) and Chris Pincher (right) leave 10 Downing Street. Photograph: Rob Pinney/Getty Images

5.01pm GMT

Afternoon summary

• Boris Johnson has made Jacob Rees-Mogg the new minister for “Brexit opportunities” and installed a key loyalist as his chief whip in a reshuffle intended to shore up his position after weeks of terrible headlines. Commenting on the purpose of the reshuffle, the PM’s spokesperson told at the afternoon lobby briefing:

As the PM said last week, it is important that we both make immediate changes to improve both how the No 10 operation works and the work of the Cabinet Office, and further changes to strengthen cabinet government and improve that vital connection between No 10 and parliament.

The changes being made today will strengthen that connection. We have changes to the whips’ office, improving engagement with MPs and helping to drive the government’s ambitious agenda.

We have a new Brexit opportunities minister, a role that’s been created to drive forward the changes we are able to make now that we have left the EU, delivering on our post-Brexit agenda across Whitehall.

• The NHS waiting list in England, which already stands at a record 6 million, will keep on growing for another two years as millions more patients seek care, Sajid Javid has told MPs.

• Boris Johnson will not apologise for remarks falsely linking Keir Starmer to the failure to prosecute Jimmy Savile, his spokesperson has said, as Conservative MPs called on the prime minister to back down after protesters shouted abuse at the Labour leader on Monday.

4.55pm GMT

Enforcing protocol checks cost NI at least £8.6m last year, says Poots

A Stormont minister has criticised the “huge” operating costs of Northern Ireland Protocol checks as he outlined the multimillion-pound bill for the first year in operation, PA Media reports. PA says:

Agriculture minister Edwin Poots detailed around £8.65m of expenditure throughout 2021, but said other costs outside of his department meant the overall total was significantly higher.

Poots, who last week ordered a unilateral halt to the agri-food checks, was responding to a Stormont Assembly question posed by Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister.

A high court judge has suspended Poots’s direction to stop checks on incoming GB goods pending a full legal challenge into his decision next month.

Addressing the assembly today, the minister said the salary costs of the additional staff needed to complete the checks at Northern Ireland ports was around £4,447,500. He said that total included almost £1m on agency staff.

He said the running costs of the checking facilities in Northern Ireland and the service contract for lorry seal checks carried out on the GB side of the Irish Sea totalled £4.2m.

Updated at 5.10pm GMT