Alex Burghart and Will Quince join DfE ministerial team

Conservative MPs Alex Burghart and Will Quince have been appointed education ministers in Boris Johnson’s reshuffle.

Burghart, the MP for Brentwood and Ongar, was previously a parliamentary private secretary to the prime minister. Quince, the MP for Colchester, was a work and pensions minister.

It is not yet known what roles they will take on, nor whether Baroness Berridge, currently academies minister, will stay on in her role.

Vicky Ford, previously the children’s minister, has been appointed as a Foreign Office minister.

Sources inside Westminster reported earlier that universities minister Michelle Donelan was set to also take on the FE and skills brief after Gillian Keegan was moved to the Department of Health and Social Care.

Shortly after the announcement that he’d been appointed to the government, Burghart published a cryptic tweet saying “@educationgovuk⁩ here we go” with pictures of the Skills White Paper.

If Berridge does stay on, this would leave only the children’s minister post vacant, after it was announced that Robin Walker will be schools minister. However, the DfE may rejig roles and responsibilities, as it has in the past.