Robert Jenrick, who left government under a cloud after he intervened to grant planning permission to a Conservative donor, has made a return to the frontbench, as has Steve Baker, the Brexit hardliner and former leading backbench rebel.
It came as Liz Truss reached out to some Rishi Sunak supporters in a series of junior ministerial appointments, a day after she appointed a cabinet made up almost entirely of allies and backers in the leadership race.
Jenrick was announced as a minister of state in the Department of Health and Social care, while Baker takes on the same job in the Northern Ireland Office.
Baker’s return to government could indicate that Truss plans to take a robust attitude to Brexit-related issues in Northern Ireland, given his strong views on the subject. The new Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, is also a vehement Brexiter.
Baker spent a year as a junior Brexit minister before resigning over Theresa May’s planned departure deal, and played a leading role in the Brexit “spartans” who helped topple her. Under Johnson, he has been a regular dissenter over subjects including Covid restrictions and net-zero goals.
Jenrick was removed as the communities and housing secretary in September 2021 as part of a reshuffle by Boris Johnson, after months of politically damaging reports about his role in a planning decision involving the media tycoon and Tory donor Richard Desmond.
It had emerged that Jenrick had overruled the decisions of a local authority and the government Planning Inspectorate to give permission for Desmond’s planned £1bn property development in the Isle of the Dogs, east London.
Documents showed that Jenrick, who had sat next to Desmond at a party fundraising dinner shortly before his decision, had pushed for quick action over the project, so the billionaire could avoid paying a £45m community levy to the local council, Tower Hamlets, London’s poorest borough. Twelve days after the decision was made, Desmond gave £12,000 to the Conservative party.
Jenrick rejected any wrongdoing before reversing his decision and handing over the final say to another minister, who eventually ruled that the project should not go ahead.
There have been suggestions that Jenrick could in effect be in charge of the day-to-day running of the NHS, given that the health secretary, Thérèse Coffey, is also Truss’s deputy prime minister. However, officials say his responsibilities will be standard for a minister of state, the second rank of ministerial seniority.
Jenrick was a vocal supporter of Sunak in the battle to succeed Boris Johnson, and was among a series of fellow backers of the ex-chancellor to be made junior ministers on Wednesday, including Victoria Prentis, now a work and pensions minister. Mark Spencer, another Sunak backer, is still in government, but demoted from Commons leader to a junior environment, food and rural affairs role.
In a widespread shakeup of the ministerial roles seen under Johnson, Truss also brought back to government Jesse Norman, who quit as a Treasury minister last year, and later published one of the most damning letters of no-confidence in Johnson, saying he had “presided over a culture of casual law-breaking at 10 Downing Street”. He is now a Foreign Office minister.
