Justine Greening has been announced as the new transport secretary, replacing Philip Hammond, who was appointed as the new defence secretary following the resignation of Liam Fox last Friday.
Greening has been Conservative MP for Putney since 2005 and became economic secretary to the Treasury in May 2010 after the coalition came to power.
Born in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, she studied economics at the University of Southampton. Prior to entering parliament, she trained as an accountant and worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers, GlaxoSmithKline and Centrica, parent company of British Gas.
According to her website, Greening has been instrumental in tackling antisocial behaviour across her constituency, “running campaigns in crime hotspots to draw the community together and face down criminal activity.”
She is leading the District Line campaign, pressing for a better service and cleaner tube trains, and has ensured a new lift was recently installed at Southfields. She also campaigned against the previous Labour government’s plans for a third runway at Heathrow.
Colleagues say she has proved herself as one Cameron’s “attack dogs,” frequently accusing Labour of making “uncosted, unfunded spending commitments”.
In response to the claim that the government is soft on the City of London, Greening has argued banks have been paying more tax under the coalition than Labour. She was also staunch defender of government plans to extract more tax from oil firms operating in the North Sea.
Greening’s former post of economic secretary is now taken by Norwich North MP, Chloe Smith, who became the youngest MP.
Until Smith’s election, Greening was the youngest female Tory MP. The 42-year-old increases the number of women in the cabinet to five.
