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By Rachel Lawler

Justine Greening has been replaced by as education secretary. Greening is said to have stepped down from the cabinet after being offered a job at the Department for Work and Pensions.

 

Hinds joins the Department of Education from the Department for Work and Pensions where he served as employment minister He has also worked as a treasury minister and an assistant whip.

 

Hinds said that he “delighted” to be the new education secretary and was “looking forward to working with the great teachers and lecturers in our schools, colleges and universities giving people the opportunity to make the most of their lives”.

 

Hinds previously worked in the pub and hotel industry, before being elected MP for East Hampshire in 2010. He then sat on the Parliamentary Education Committee between 2010 and 2012 and chaired an All-Party Parliamentary Group on social mobility.

 

Greening said: “Social mobility matters to me and our country more than my ministerial career. I’ll continue to do everything I can to create a country that has equality of opportunity for young people and I’ll keep working hard as MP for Putney.”

 

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Alliance, welcomed Hinds into his new role. He said: “Though the importance of a quality early years education is no longer up for debate, Mr Hinds takes over the Department for Education at a time when underfunding is testing the sector’s sustainability while providers continue to voice concerns about the increased schoolification of early education.

 

“A change in leadership at the department represents an excellent opportunity to revisit these issues and we look forward to representing the sector as the new secretary of state seeks to address them.”