#ministerial-appointments

#ministerial-appointments

Rachida Dati leaves a ministry struggling with budgetary cuts and badly shaken by the stunning theft of the French crown jewels from the Louvre in October. An ongoing parliamentary investigation has underlined the responsibility the ministry bears for the museum's security failings. One day before her own resignation, the Louvre's director Laurence des Cars stepped down.

The much-criticised watchdog that scrutinises the jobs UK ministers can take after leaving office will be formally scrapped on Monday as part of a wider shake-up of the ethics structure in government. The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), described by critics as fundamentally toothless, has been closed, a Cabinet Office announcement said, with its functions taken over by two existing regulators. At the same time, a new organisation called the Ethics and Integrity Commission will oversee the work of a series of other regulators,

The cabinet of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer experienced a reshuffle on Friday after Angela Rayner resigned as UK deputy prime minister. Rayner stepped down following an independent inquiry that found she fell short of the standards expected of government ministers over a tax error on a recent house purchase. As part of the overhaul, Yvette Cooper was named foreign minister, replacing David Lammy who will become deputy prime minister and justice minister, Starmer's office said in a statement.