Matt Hancock to remain as health secretary in cabinet reshuffle

Health secretary Matt Hancock will keep his role as secretary of state for health and social care in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s new cabinet.

The new Prime Minister sacked over half of Theresa May’s cabinet yesterday evening, but Mr Hancock survived the cull which saw a new chancellor, home secretary and foreign secretary.

The minister tweeted that it was a ‘great honour to be asked to drive forward the health and care of the nation’.

Mr Hancock, who was appointed health secretary in July 2018, initially ran against Boris Johnson in the new leadership race, but pulled out on 14 June.

He previously held the position of digital, culture, media and sport minister from January 2018, and prior to that was a junior minister in the department.

Over the past few months, Mr Hancock has pledged to fix pension tax problems by April 2020, to look at setting a deadline for recruiting 5,000 extra GPs, and pledged £150m to improve NHS IT resilience.