New UK Energy Secretary Appointed

New UK Energy Secretary Appointed
Grant Shapps has replaced Jacob Rees-Mogg.

New UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has appointed Grant Shapps as the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Commenting on his appointment in a Twitter statement, Shapps said, “delighted to become Business Secretary in Rishi Sunak’s administration with Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to look after”.

Shapps replaces Jacob Rees-Mogg, who was appointed as the UK’s Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy after Liz Truss became the country’s Prime Minister on September 6. Rees-Mogg replaced Kwasi Kwarteng, who was Secretary of State at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy between January 8, 2021 and  September 6, 2022.

Shapps was previously Secretary of State for the Home Department from October 19, 2022, to October 25, 2022, Secretary of State for Transport between July 24, 2019, and September 6, 2022, and Minister of State at the Department for International Development from May 11, 2015 until November 28, 2015.

Lis Truss recently revealed that she was resigning as Leader of the Conservative Party and UK Prime Minister. Sunak was appointed as the new Leader of the Conservative Party and the new UK Prime Minister on October 25.

“Right now our country is facing a profound economic crisis,” Sunak said in his first statement as Prime Minister.

“The aftermath of Covid still lingers. Putin’s war in Ukraine has destabilized energy markets and supply chains the world over,” he added.

“I want to pay tribute to my predecessor Liz Truss, she was not wrong to want to improve growth in this country, it is a noble aim, and I admired her restlessness to create change, but some mistakes were made. Not borne of ill will or bad intentions. Quite the opposite, in fact, but mistakes nonetheless, and I have been elected as leader of my party, and your Prime Minister, in part, to fix them,” Sunak continued.

“And that work begins immediately,” Sunak went on to say.

To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com


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