Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight

       Please enter a valid email address

       Please enter a valid email address

       SIGN UP

       I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice

       Thanks for signing up to the

       Brexit and beyond email

       {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }}

       Claire Coutinho has been thrust into the spotlight after winning one of the top jobs in government – promoted to energy secretary after Grant Shapps departed to take up the defence secretary job.

       It marks a major step up for the little-known Rishi Sunak ally, the “blue wall” moderate who has only been in parliament since 2019 and has held junior ministerial roles for less than a year.

       The 38-year-old – a loyal supporter of the PM who regularly took to the airwaves on his behalf during last summer’s leadership contest – has a similar background to Mr Sunak.

       Like the prime minister, she is the child of Indian emigrees. While Mr Sunak’s mother ran a pharmacist, Ms Coutinho’s parents are both doctors who came to the UK in the 1970s.

       Like Mr Sunak, the high-flyer was privately educated (at James Allen’s Girls School) and went on to study both Maths and Philosophy at Oxford University.

       And like Mr Sunak Ms Coutinho worked in finance – beginning her career at Merrill Lynch before moving on to KMPG, before leaving the City and joining Iain Duncan Smith’s Centre for Social Justice think tank.

       Recommended Grant Shapps replaces Ben Wallace as defence secretary in mini-shuffle Grant Shapps becomes defence secretary and Claire Coutinho named energy secretary - cabinet reshuffle live Shapps knows his first duty is to defend the PM… sorry, I meant the realm

       Entering Westminster politics, she worked with Mr Sunak as a special adviser at the Treasury. A Brexit backer, like Mr Sunak, Ms Coutinho enjoyed a rapid rise through the ranks after winning the safe Tory seat of East Surrey in December 2019.

       A keen supporter of Mr Sunak during his bid to become leader, she was rewarded with the job of children’s minister last October, having had a very brief spell as a junior minister in the Department for Work and Pensions.

       Ms Coutinho was once a contestant on the cooking programme The Taste, in which Nigella Lawson was a judge. She has previously said her ideal weekend as going to a food market and watching a good crime documentary.

       Claire Coutinho (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

       (PA Wire)

       Only four years after entering parliament, she has enjoyed an ascent nearly as dizzying as that of her boss Mr Sunak. Her new role as energy secretary is likely to be her biggest test yet.

       Her arrival at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to replace Mr Shapps means the PM has another close ally heading an important portfolio.

       But her arrival comes amid accusations that Mr Sunak and his ministers are rowing back on net zero commitments – with critics hitting out at plans to grant new licences for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea.

       It remans to be seen if she brings any great change in policy. She recently objected to the expansion of the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (Ulez) in London, joining other Tory MPs in calling it a policy “clearly rejected by the people” during this summer’s Uxbridge by-election.

       Recommended MPs call for magic mushrooms and psychedelic drugs to be downgraded RSPB apologises for calling Tories ‘liars’ over green promises

       Labour’s shadow climate secretary Ed Miliband criticised the rapid turnover of ministers in the energy portfolio. He said “it speaks volumes about the failures of Tory policy that we are now onto the sixth secretary of state since 2019”.

       Mr Miliband said “reshuffling of the deckchairs will not deliver the proper energy policy Britain needs” and said Ms Coutinho “needs to recognise that Grant Shapps’ approach has been a disaster”.

       Labour’s shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry said: “I think that it doesn’t matter how often they reshuffle the jobs or Rishi Sunak finds another mate to help and to give a new job to. They don’t have any new ideas.”

       More about Claire Coutinho Grant Shapps Rishi Sunak reshuffle Brexit

       Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

       Comments

       1/ 2Claire Coutinho – rising star who is Sunak’s mirror image gets top job

       Claire Coutinho – rising star who is Sunak’s mirror image gets top job

       Claire Coutinho (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

       PA Wire

       Claire Coutinho – rising star who is Sunak’s mirror image gets top job

       Claire Coutinho (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

       PA Wire

       ？ Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article

       Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.

       Subscribe

       Already subscribed? Log in