New cabinet: Who is in Liz Truss's top team?

Liz Truss became prime minister on 6 September 2022, replacing Boris Johnson who was in post for slightly more than three years.

She was not the first choice of Conservative MPs - but she was the clear winner in a ballot of Tory members, who had the final say.

Truss has been a government minister since 2012, and held cabinet posts under David Cameron, Theresa May and Johnson, most recently as foreign secretary.

A Remain supporter at the 2016 EU referendum, who began her political journey at Oxford University as a Liberal Democrat, she is now an enthusiastic Brexiteer who has vowed to get back to traditional tax-cutting Tory values.

Truss, who has two children, was elected to Parliament as MP for South West Norfolk in 2010 after serving as deputy director of think tank Reform.

Thérèse Coffey has been appointed health secretary, taking over from Stephen Barclay who had only been in the role for two months, and will also be deputy prime minister.

The former work and pensions secretary is a long-time friend of Liz Truss and was closely involved in her leadership campaign.

Coffey, who was elected MP for Suffolk Coastal in 2010, previously served in a number of roles including environment minister, Commons deputy leader and assistant whip.

A devout Roman Catholic, she was asked about her views on abortion after the recent US Supreme Court ruling and said the law was not going to change in the UK - although she added she would prefer people not to have abortions.

The former Mars and BBC employee is a member of the Campaign for Real Ale with a love of karaoke, and lists her interests as watching football, gardening and music.

Kwasi Kwarteng, a key ally of Liz Truss, has been appointed chancellor, replacing Nadhim Zahawi who only took the role after Rishi Sunak resigned in July.

Of Ghanaian heritage, Kwarteng won a scholarship to Eton at the age of 13 and went on to study history at Cambridge University, eventually earning a PhD in British history. He was also part of a series-winning team on University Challenge.

He became an MP in 2010 - the same year as Truss - and the two share a commitment to free market economics.

In January 2021, he became the first black Conservative cabinet minister when Boris Johnson made him business secretary.

The MP for Spelthorne, in Surrey, he worked as an analyst in financial services and a journalist before entering politics.

James Cleverly has become foreign secretary, taking over the new prime minister’s former department.

He had been education secretary since July but was a minister in the Foreign Office, with responsibility for Europe and North America, when Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

The son of a midwife and a small business owner, he was privately educated and was a member of the London Assembly, where he became an ally of Boris Johnson.

Theresa May made him party chairman and Johnson initially promoted him to the cabinet as minister without portfolio before demoting him in his February 2020 reshuffle.

The father-of-two, who has spoken recently of his wife’s diagnosis and treatment for breast cancer, has been MP for Braintree in Essex since 2015. He served in the Territorial Army, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Suella Braverman is one of the big winners in Liz Truss’s first cabinet, replacing Priti Patel as home secretary.

Having run for the leadership herself, Braverman, an enthusiastic Brexit supporter, declared her support for her former rival soon after being eliminated from the contest.

She has been rewarded with a promotion from the role of attorney general, who attends cabinet, to one of the biggest jobs in it.

Last year, after Braverman announced she was expecting her second child, the government updated the law so that she - and future ministers - could take six months' maternity leave without having to resign.

Braverman has been MP for Fareham in Hampshire since 2015, but before that was a barrister specialising in cases involving public bodies including her new department, the Home Office.

Ben Wallace remains defence secretary, a post he has held since July 2019 and in which he has earned praise for his response to the Ukraine crisis.

Once considered a favourite to succeed Boris Johnson, he surprised many by deciding not to stand in the leadership contest and backed Truss after she reached the last round.

A former ski instructor, Mr Wallace trained at Sandhurst before joining the Scots Guards as a platoon commander.

During his eight-year spell in the Army, he served in Germany, Cyprus, Belize and Northern Ireland where he helped thwart an IRA bomb attack.

He is MP for Wyre and Preston North and has been in the Commons since 2005. He has also been a member of the Scottish Parliament.

Wendy Morton has been appointed chief whip, responsible for party discipline and ensuring Conservative MPs vote along party lines, and will attend cabinet.

The former assistant whip backed Liz Truss at the start of the leadership contest and replaces Chris Heaton-Harris in the role.

Morton, who has also been a transport and Foreign Office minister, says her interests include walking, cookery, art deco and ceramics.

She was first elected MP for the West Midlands constituency of Aldridge-Brownhills in 2015, having missed out to Truss’s rival Rishi Sunak in a bid to become the party candidate for Richmond in 2014.