Elizabeth Truss has been promoted to the role of environment secretary in place of Owen Paterson.
The South West Norfolk MP, who was made early-years minister in 2012, landed the promotion this morning in Prime Minister David Cameron’s final cabinet reshuffle before next year’s general election.
Paterson, who was branded the 'badger basher' for his handling of the controversial badger cull to try to control TB in cattle, had been the secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs since 2012.
Cameron has axed or changed the roles of a number of white, male secretary of states and ministers, including William Hague, Ken Clarke, and Michael Gove, although farming minister George Eustice looks set to hold onto his job.
On Truss' constituency website, it notes: 'Elizabeth has a number of concerns about the use of agricultural land for solar or biomass plants and the subsidies for these operations. She does not want to see the UK’s food security jeopardised; food and farming is the largest manufacturing industry in the UK, and she is keen to see that the importance of this sector is recognised.
“Elizabeth has also raised with the Defra secretary of state her concerns in relation to flooding in her constituency. She has long argued that the £1:£8 cost benefit ratio formula provided by the Environment Agency for the funding of flood prevention schemes do not value farmland high enough.”
Brought up in Yorkshire, Truss read philosophy, politics and economics at Merton College, Oxford University.
She has been a member of the Conservative Party for nearly 20 years, and fought parliamentary seats in 2001 and 2005. Prior to being elected, Truss was deputy director at the think-tank Reform, and worked in the energy and telecommunications industry for 10 years as a commercial manager and economics director.
She is married with two daughters, and lives in Downham Market and London.
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