Justine Greening has been appointed as education secretary in Theresa May's Cabinet reshuffle. Ms Greening replaces Nicky Morgan, who has served in the role for the previous two years. She was tipped to be a likely candidate for Education Secretary after the new Prime Minister said she was keen to assign more women to top cabinet positions.

Ms Morgan took to social media to congratulate Ms Greening on her new role, tweeting: “Congrats to my successor Justine Greening – she’s committed to excellence in education, equalities and did great work for women at DIFID”.

As well as being responsible for schools, colleges and universities, Miss Greening becomes the minister for women and equalities. She moves to the role from the Department for International Development, where she has been secretary of state for nearly four years. She led the UK's efforts to combat Ebola in Sierra Leone and humanitarian responses such as emergency aid in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. Ms Greening also worked to end female genital mutilation and forced marriage as part of her efforts to improve the lives of women and girls. 

Before entering Parliament, she worked as an account and finance manager for companies such as Price Waterhouse Coopers, GlaxoSmithKline and Centrica.

The MP for Putney, Roehampton and Southfields is the first education secretary to attend a comprehensive secondary school, Oakwood Comprehensive in Rotherham, currently rated as good by Ofsted. She also become the first openly gay female cabinet minister following her announcement last month that she was in a same sex relationship. She studied economics at the University of Southampton and has an MBA from London School of Economics, according to the biography on her personal website.

Leaving Downing Street after the announcement, Ms Greening reportedly told onlookers it was her “perfect job”.