Who is Claire Coutinho? Rising star of Tory occasion turns into power secretary

Tory MP Claire Coutinho has been appointed the brand new power safety and internet zero secretary, changing veteran cupboard minister Grant Shapps in one of many prime jobs of presidency.

It is a major promotion for the East Surrey MP who was solely elected to parliament in December 2019.

The 38-year-old held her earlier junior function as youngsters’s minister for lower than a 12 months however is a long-term ally of Rishi Sunak.

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She served as an adviser to the prime minister earlier than coming into the Commons, when he was chief secretary to the Treasury, and backed his bid to change into chief when Boris Johnson resigned.

Ms Coutinho is the primary member of the big 2019 consumption of Tory MPs to make it to the cupboard desk.

While she will not be well-known to the broader public, her promotion won’t have come as a shock to her colleagues.

Widely seen as a rising star of the Tory occasion, Ms Coutinho has the same background to Mr Sunak.

The daughter of docs from India, she was educated on the fee-paying James Allen’s Girls’ School in Dulwich and went on to review at Oxford University, graduating with a grasp’s diploma in maths and philosophy.

Ms Coutinho started her profession on the Merrill Lynch funding financial institution earlier than leaving the City and becoming a member of former occasion chief Iain Duncan Smith’s Centre for Social Justice.

She additionally frolicked within the Treasury as a particular adviser and, after being elected in 2019 within the protected seat of East Surrey, returned as a parliamentary personal secretary (PPS) in March 2020.

Ms Coutinho remained on this function till July final 12 months, when she joined the exodus from Mr Johnson’s authorities over his dealing with of the Chris Pincher affair.

She was a vocal supporter of Mr Sunak’s ill-fated management bid to exchange Mr Johnson however nonetheless went on to to change into minister for disabled individuals beneath victor Liz Truss.

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She was given a ministerial job within the Department for Education a month later, when the Truss administration collapsed, and Mr Sunak turned prime minister.

Ms Coutinho’s arrival into cupboard comes amid accusations that Mr Sunak and his ministers are rowing again on environmental commitments and net-zero goals, with critics hitting out at plans to grant new licences for oil and gasoline extraction within the North Sea.

While critics of Mr Shapps, who is replacing Ben Wallace as defence secretary, have heralded his departure, it stays to be seen if she’s going to convey any nice change in policymaking.

She not too long ago made clear her objection to the growth of the Ultra Low Emission Zone in London, becoming a member of different Tory MPs in calling it a coverage “clearly rejected by the people” throughout this summer time’s Uxbridge by-election, and labelling it a “tax on those who can least afford it”.