Liz Truss will start assembling her first cabinet as Prime Minister later today - and some North East MPs are being linked with top jobs.
Nadine Dorries confirmed that she had been asked by Ms Truss to stay on as Culture Secretary but had decided that she also would be returning to the backbenches.
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Her voluntary departure is expected to mark the start of a significant clearout of ministers as Ms Truss shapes her top team.
Priti Patel has already quit as home secretary, having seen her position publicly linked with Suella Braverman, the Attorney General.
Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab – who backed Rishi Sunak in the leadership contest – is also expected to be among the casualties having denounced Ms Truss’s tax plans as an “electoral suicide note”.
Mr Sunak, the former chancellor whose resignation helped trigger the downfall of Boris Johnson, has also made clear he does not expect to be offered a new job.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng expected to take the key post of chancellor.
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith has turned down a chance to return to the political frontline after being offered a position in Ms Truss’s new Cabinet.
The former work and pensions secretary said he remained a committed supporter of the new Prime Minister, who he backed in the leadership contest, but has chosen to remain on the backbenches.
Middlesbrough South and east Cleveland MP Simon Clarke is tipped to be levelling up secretary in the cabinet – an appointment that would be welcomed by many in the North East who are on the brink of agreeing devolution deals with Whitehall.
Bishop Auckland’s Dehenna Davison, a huge supporter of Ms Truss in the leadership campaign, is another who could make her first steps into government.
Ms Truss became the UK’s third female Prime Minister after meeting the Queen at her Scottish estate.
The handover of power from Boris Johnson took place at Balmoral rather than Buckingham Palace because of the 96 year-old monarch’s mobility problems, with Ms Truss becoming the Queen’s 15th prime minister.
Ms Truss, who won the Tory leadership on Monday, will travel to Westminster to address the nation from Downing Street later on Tuesday afternoon.
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