Greg Clark appointed new Housing Secretary

Greg Clark is Michael Gove’s replacement at DLUHC. He is MP for Tunbridge Wells.

Clark was a junior minister in DeCLoG (the predecessor to DLUHC) from 2010 to 2012, and later went back to DeCLoG as Secretary of State in 2015. He was the Secretary of State between the 2015 General Election and the appointment of Theresa May as PM in 2016, when he was moved to the post of Business Secretary, serving in that office under Theresa May from 2016 to 2019.

Following the replacement of Theresa May as PM by Boris Johnson in July 2019, Clark (who was opposed to a ‘No Deal’ Brexit) voted against the EU Withdrawal Bill, whereupon Boris Johnson withdrew the Tory whip from him and other Tory rebels. (The whip was restored in the following month.) He is regarded as a Tory moderate.

So, rather unusually, his new department is one that is familiar to the new Secretary of State. (Complete inexperience in and ignorance of the subject with which the new minister will be dealing is more usual!)

Politics is still in a state of some flux, and it is uncertain how long Clark will serve in his new post. This will depend on how long Boris Johnson continues as PM. All ministerial posts will be at the disposal of a new PM when he or she takes over from Johnson.

© MARTIN H GOODALL