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Environment Secretary George Eustice has been sacked by new British Prime Minister Liz Truss, and replaced with north east Hampshire MP Ranil Jayawardena.
Eustice, the MP for Camborne and Redruth in Cornwall, was appointed to the top job at Defra in February 2020, having previously served as Minister of State at the Department since 2015.
That stint as a Defra minister included over a year when he answered to the then Defra secretary, Liz Truss.
Despite that, Eustice backed Rishi Sunak in the race to be the new Tory leader, with reports suggesting he had recently questioned Truss’s commitment to animal welfare in international trade deals.
It was Truss who forged ahead with UK deals with Australia and New Zealand when she headed up International Trade.
Back benches
However, Eustice has now found himself on the back benches after Ms Truss conducted a purge of all government ministers who had favoured Rishi Sunak as prime minister.
His successor, Ranil Jayawardena, has been an MP since 2015, and has a background in banking.
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