Mrs Leadsom will take over responsibilities at the
Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) from Liz Truss, who
has been promoted to Justice Secretary in the cabinet reshuffle.
She joins minister of state George Eustice MP, and
parliamentary undersecretary of state Rory Stewart – who currently resides over
the waste and resources brief – at the department.
An advocate of the campaign to leave the EU, Mrs Leadsom had
come to national attention in recent weeks as a possible contender for the
Conservative leadership – and Prime Minister of the UK.
But her hopes were dashed on Monday when the candidate
announced she was pulling out of the race, saying it was “in the best interest
of the country”.
Mrs Leadsom’s sudden withdrawal paved the way for Theresa
May to enter Number 10 yesterday, when she was formally sworn in as the UK’s
76th Prime Minister.
A spokesman for Defra said: “The Queen has been pleased to
approve the appointment of Andrea Leadsom MP as Secretary of State for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.”
As a former minister of state for Energy at the Department
of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) under David Cameron’s administration, Mrs
Leadsom has some experience dealing with the renewables sector.
But, her appointment as the head of Defra is still likely to
be viewed as a surprise choice by many environmental industries, including
waste and recycling.
Her parliamentary record shows that she voted in favour of
establishing the Green Investment Bank in 2012 – but more recently voted to
apply the Climate Change Levy to electricity generated from renewable sources
and opposed setting a decarbonisation target.
Mrs Leadsom’s views on waste and recycling are not widely
known, but in 2007 she penned a blog post on her constituency website calling
for councils to retain weekly waste collections.
“It seems that the fortnightly collection that more and more
councils are moving to is about the cost of rubbish collection, not about
reducing landfill,” she wrote.
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