New Health Secretary Sajid Javid says that he wants to see a return to normal as quickly as possible after replacing Matt Hancock. Mr Javid said he would do all he could to "deliver for the people of this great country".
His appointment comes after Mr Hancock stood down for breaching Covid rules by kissing a colleague. Bromsgrove MP, Javid, who has had several key government roles, said his predecessor had worked incredibly hard.
His return to the cabinet comes 16 months after his shock resignation as chancellor. But Labour criticised the appointment, saying he had been an "architect of austerity" that weakened the NHS.
Hancock announced his resignation after pressure had been building for him to quit following the publication of pictures and a video of him and Gina Coladangelo, who are both married with three children, kissing. The (Sun) newspaper said the images had been taken inside the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) on 6 May.
Following the revelations, a number of Conservative MPs, as well as Labour and the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, called for Mr Hancock to go. Following him (Hancock) breaching his own social distancing rules, Prime Minister Boris Johnson accepted the then Health Secretary's grovelling apology but was never going to firing Matt Hancock over his secret affair and, according to Downing Street, considers the matter closed.
Ms Coladangelo is also leaving her role as a non-executive director at the DHSC.
Mr Hancock has ended his 15-year marriage to his wife, Martha, and the relationship with Ms Coladangelo is understood to be a serious one. Javid's return to a senior cabinet role comes after he abruptly left government in February last year, a month before he was due to deliver his first Budget.
At the time, the prime minister ordered him to fire his closest aides and replace them with advisers chosen by Number 10 if he wanted to remain in post - conditions he said he was unable to accept.
