British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has reshuffled his government in response to criticism by Conservative Party MPs and the continuing fallout from lockdown gatherings at Downing Street.
Minsters arrived in Downing Street earlier to hear details of what the prime minister's spokesman described as a small reshuffle of ministerial responsibilities.
Much of the reshuffle involved junior minsters taking on extra responsibilities at the Cabinet Office, where senior cabinet minister Stephen Barclay has also taken on the role of chief of staff for the prime minister following a series of resignations last week.
Jacob Rees-Mogg has been moved from Commons Leader to Minister for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency in the Cabinet Office, No 10 said.
Mark Spencer has gone from chief whip to become the new Commons Leader. His new role will still see him play a major part in liaising between Tory backbenchers and No 10.
Chris Heaton-Harris becomes Chief Whip, having been Europe Minister. The Daventry MP was previously chief whip for the Tories in the European Parliament.
Stuart Andrew has been appointed Minister for Housing in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. He had previously been deputy chief whip.
Meanwhile, the speaker of the House of Commons has rebuked Mr Johnson for his comments last week wrongly linking Labour leader Kier Starmer to a failure to prosecute sex offender Jimmy Saville.
Mr Johnson, who won a landslide in a 2019 election, is facing the gravest crisis of his premiership after a series of scandals including revelations that he and his staff attended Downing Street parties during Covid-19 lockdowns.
As Mr Johnson apologised to parliament for the parties on 31 January, he falsely claimed Mr Starmer had failed to prosecute Savile during his time as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Mr Starmer was confronted by angry protesters yesterday evening who surrounded him after an Covid vaccination demonstration.
Before being escorted into a police car, some of the protesters can be heard shouting "Traitor!" and "Were you protecting Jimmy Savile?" at him.
"It is really important for our democracy and for his security that the false Savile slurs made against him are withdrawn in full," Conservative MP Julian Smith said.
Another Conservative MP, Roger Gale, said such treatment of Mr Starmer was disgraceful.
"This, I fear, is the direct result of the deliberately careless use of language in the Chamber," Mr Gale said.
The comments had the potential to create "a violence of emotional reaction" and showed "a lack of respect" to the families of Savile's victims, the widower of murdered Labour MP Jo Cox said.
Brendan Cox told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "When you throw around accusations of people protecting paedophiles or not moving against paedophiles, it creates a viscerality of debate and a violence of emotional reaction.
"It will have implications that I don't think for a second that the Prime Minister was planning on, on stoking up that level of fury and anger," Mr Cox added.
Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said the abuse aimed at Mr Starmer was "completely unacceptable" but insisted Mr Johnson's comments were not to blame.
He said Mr Johnson made a "fair and reasonable point" that "somebody at the top of an organisation has responsibility for what happens in it".
The prime minister clarified his remarks on 3 February, saying that he had not meant to imply Mr Starmer had personally failed to prosecute one of Britain's most notorious sex offenders.
Mr Johnson's clarification failed to satisfy Munira Mirza, his head of policy who had worked with him for 14 years, and prompted her to quit her job last week. Finance Minister Rishi Sunak has also said he would not have made such a remark.
