Grant Shapps has been appointed defence secretary following the formal resignation of Ben Wallace, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced.
Grant Shapps, who had served as energy secretary since February this year, had not been considered in the running for the role until recent days, and his emergence as the front-runner has taken some by surprise.
However, he placed opposition to Vladimir Putin’s ‘energy war’ at the centre of his approach in his previous position, and posted a video from a trip to Ukraine on his social media last week.
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Grant Shapps wrote: ‘I’d like to pay tribute to the enormous contribution Ben Wallace has made to UK defence & global security over the last 4 years.’
He added: ‘As I get to work at @DefenceHQ I am looking forward to working with the brave men and women of our Armed Forces who defend our nation’s security. And continuing the UK’s support for Ukraine in their fight against Putin’s barbaric invasion.’
Claire Coutinho, a former junior education minister and special adviser at the treasury, will replace him as energy security and net zero secretary.
Wallace, the longest-serving Conservative defence secretary, held the job through some of the most significant international events of recent years, including the Nato withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.
Before his promotion in July 2019, he served as security minister, and played a major role in the response to the Westminster and London Bridge attacks in 2017 as well as the poisonings of Sergei and Julia Skripal in Salisbury the following year.
In his resignation letter to the prime minister, he said it had ‘been an honour to serve alongside the men and women of our Armed forces and intelligence services’.
He added: ‘The last four years has seen our Armed Forces and their leadership shine through.
‘Whether it was the evacuation of Kabul, our Covid response, Ukraine or Sudan, the professionalism of our people has been first class.’
The former Army captain announced he would be stepping down from his role last month, while also saying he would not be standing at the next general election.
He told The Times: ‘I went into politics in the Scottish Parliament in 1999. That’s 24 years.
‘I’ve spent well over seven years with three phones by my bed. What are they for? Secret, secret and secret.’
Writing on X, former prime minister Boris Johnson said: ‘Sad to see departure of my friend Ben Wallace. A fine Defence Secretary who got so many calls right – especially on Ukraine.
‘Grant Shapps is an excellent choice to succeed him.’
In the video from Ukraine, which was posted on August 25, Shapps says: ‘I heard the air-raid sirens in [Kyiv] and I saw the damage done, but also the repairs underway with anti-missile defences being installed.
‘But I also witnessed the people, the families standing strong through it all, fighting, rebuilding, living their lives in spite of it all.
‘The UK stood with them from the very beginning, and always will. Slava Ukraini.’