A reshuffle took place on Tuesday, 8th February 2022 at which the Prime Minister promoted me back to the Cabinet to the role of “Minister for the Cabinet Office”, in addition to my role as Her Majesty’s Paymaster General.
This is my seventh ministerial role and my ninth government appointment in the nearly 12 years I have been MP for Northampton North. This is also my second Cabinet role, having been Attorney General for just over six months last year. It is a great honour to once again be in the Cabinet in my new position.
As well as attending the weekly Cabinet meetings – a group of the most senior ministers in Government, chaired by the Prime Minister and used as a forum to make the biggest policy decisions in the country – I will also attend and indeed chair various Cabinet sub-committees and will play an integral role at the heart of Government, working across departments and on major issues such as national security.
This government’s track record on the vaccine rollout and pandemic recovery prove that this is a government willing to fight for the people of this country. This government is getting on with tackling the issues which matter to the British people such as continuing our world leading economic growth out of the pandemic and reforming the NHS and Social care services.
You can watch one of my recent appearances in the House of Commons supporting the Prime Minister here: https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/f161f5b3-ee57-4cd3-a377-058558897bea?in=16:19:25
I hope readers will join me in welcoming the substantial progress being made across a number of fronts. Our country has performed exceptionally under the Prime Minister’s leadership throughout the pandemic, including in the following:
- The Prime Minister’s proactiveness in securing a reported 22,000 ventilators - when we reportedly previously had just 9,000 – has saved lives;
- The Prime Minister led teams to acquire billions of pieces of PPE and we have increased domestically-manufactured supplies from 1% of all PPE used to now over 75%, this too has saved lives;
- The Prime Minister’s decision to invest substantial amounts in relevant scientific research which identified dexamethasone as an effective medicine has reportedly been estimated to have saved well in excess of 20,000 lives in the UK and saved more than one-million lives globally;
- The Prime Minister’s leadership led to seven Nightingale hospitals built in a matter of days which saved lives;
- The Prime Minister’s imposed restrictions to ensure that at no point the NHS became overwhelmed saved lives;
- The Prime Minister’s leadership which ensured the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine would be not-for-profit and sold only at cost has saved lives;
- The Prime Minister’s decision to invest hundreds of millions of pounds in Covax, donating tens of millions of vaccine doses to the world’s poorest countries, has saved lives;
- The Prime Minister’s decision to send lifesaving equipment – including ventilators - to countries such as India has saved lives;
- The UK becoming the world leader in sequencing the Coronavirus genome in testing for new variants has saved lives;
- The Prime Minister’s leadership in ramping-up testing capacity from around a thousand per day to significantly over a million per day has saved lives; and
- The Prime Minister’s leadership in delivering the most successful vaccine rollout in Europe, if not the world, has saved lives, with the vast majority of adults having received both doses plus a booster.
I was delighted to welcome the Prime Minister to Northampton in recent weeks and our town has his full support in improving the area in which we live. Indeed, locally, the Government has announced that Northampton will receive up to £25 Million from the new Towns Fund. The money from the Towns Fund can be used to boost the local economy and create more jobs. This £25 million from the Towns Fund is in addition to the £265 million of Local Growth Fund which has been awarded to South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership, supporting Northampton’s Enterprise Zone, the £7 million ‘Smart Commuting’ and ‘Smart Corridors’ projects, the £6.3 million regeneration of the Vulcan Ironworks and the £2.25 million into the new Advanced Engineering Centre at Northampton College.
Furthermore, the government has set out a Ten Point Plan to unleash a green industrial revolution, creating jobs as we build back greener. The Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan will mobilise £12 billion of government investment to create and support up to 250,000 highly-skilled green jobs in the UK, and spur over three times as much private sector investment by 2030, helping us to meet our world leading target of being net zero by 2050.
We have also led the world in committing to reduce our carbon emissions by 78 per cent by 2035, as we work towards being Net Zero by 2050. We were the first major economy in the world to set a legally binding target to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 – and have enshrined into law a new target to reduce our emissions by 78 per cent by 2035 compared to 1990 levels. We have already reduced our emissions by 44 per cent between 1990 and 2019, while also growing our economy by 78 per cent – the fastest rate in the G7.
There have also been over 70 trade deals worth more than £760 billion, signalling to the world we are once again a sovereign free trading nation. Our historic Trade Act allows us to put the agreements we have struck as a newly independent twenty-first century trading nation into law. For the first time in almost 50 years, the interests of the British people and their businesses can be put first in our trade agreements.
This government have also increased the National Living Wage to £8.91 an hour, supporting hard-working families. This is a 2.2 per cent increase in the NLW, the equivalent of £345 extra per year for someone working full time. This increase strikes the right balance between supporting the living standards of the lowest paid, while ensuring businesses can thrive as the country continues to recover from Covid-19.
We have also overseen the highest number of new homes built in over 20 years, helping more people get onto the property ladder. There were nearly 50,000 completed homes in the first quarter of 2021 – the highest figure in over 20 years and a 4 per cent increase compared to the last three months of 2020. During the same period, over 46,000 home builds were started, the highest number in nearly 15 years and a 7 per cent increase on the previous quarter.
This government and this Prime Minister is getting on with building back better from the pandemic and delivering for the people of this country by focusing on the issues which define this generation.