The Department for Education (DfE) has announced that Hinds will take on the role of schools minister after Gibb resigned this week to pursue a job in the diplomatic service.
Gibb, who has held the role of schools minister since 2010, said in his resignation letter that he had ‘hugely enjoyed his ten years as schools minister’.
He is one of a number of ministers to resign their positions as the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, reshuffled his Cabinet yesterday (13 November) following the sacking of home secretary Suella Braverman.
Damian Hinds, MP for East Hampshire, previously served as education secretary from 8 January 2018 to 24 July 2019.
During his time as education secretary, Hinds was forced to admit that he had wrongly claimed school spending was going up after the official statistics watchdog pointed out that funding was frozen. He also had to admit he was wrong to claim that every school will enjoy ‘a small cash increase’.
