Levelling up secretary Michael Gove was offered a promotion to science and technology secretary in yesterday’s cabinet reshuffle, but turned down the job.
The reshuffle has also left an opening for a 15th housing minister, and the sixth in 12 months, after Lucy Frazer was promoted to culture secretary. She was appointed housing minister in November.
The reshuffle also broke apart the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, to create four new departments. New departments were forged for Science, Innovation and Technology, another for Energy and Net Zero, Culture had Digital stripped from its brief and Business was fused with Trade.
Three Whitehall sources told The Times that Gove was Sunak’s first choice for the science and technology job. He was sounded out for the role by Number 10 on Monday night but was said to have politely declined, saying that he was committed to his present role. “It’s fair to say that the plans didn’t survive contact with reality,” one Whitehall source said.
A senior government official said no formal offer was made and that Gove and Sunak did not speak directly about the role. Gove had been approached as a “courtesy”, they said, because Sunak views science and technology as a more senior job than levelling up.
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