Reshuffle kerfuffle: Nature minister Creagh cops it as Labour defends DEFRA aide appointment
Eco ChamberShow Notes
Since taking office as prime minister, Andy Burnham has made a swathe of ministerial changes across Westminster, including within DEFRA.
Dame Angela Eagle has succeeded Emma Reynolds as the new environment secretary and new faces have entered the department’s fold.
They include Suffolk Coastal MP Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, who has joined DEFRA as a junior minister and water industry veteran Lee Pitcher, the Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme MP.
Pitcher is one of more than 50 new parliamentary private secretaries appointed across government.
But one name absent from DEFRA’s ranks is Mary Creagh, the MP for Coventry East and the first nature minister who served under both environment secretaries Emma Reynolds and Steve Reed.
Across her career, Creagh has acted as both shadow secretary for DEFRA and later as chair for the Environmental Audit Committee.
On this week’s episode, the team discusses what her absence could mean for the department and asks why Natural England is worried about the implications of a recent High Court ruling on gamebirds.
PLUS
The Environment Agency’s campaign to clamp down on waste crime The Sea Use Framework sunk by the government. And the former Southern Water chief executive charged with ‘conspiracy to defraud’
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