Sir Patrick Vallance has been appointed to the tech department as Prime Minister Keir Starmer continues to build his cabinet.
Vallance has been named the Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation within DSIT, replacing Tory minister Andrew Griffith.
A physician and former pharmaceutical executive, Vallance became a government advisor in 2018 under the Conservatives. He regularly appeared alongside former prime minister Boris Johnson during the Covid-19 televised briefings.
Before his government advisory role, Vallance was senior vice president of medicines discovery and development and later president of research and development at GlaxoSmithKline.
His appointment to cabinet as an expert outside of politics is reminiscent of Gordon Brown, who sought to build a “government of all the talents”.
Vallance is expected to receive a peerage, allowing him to sit in the House of Lords.
The appointment is a departure from the shadow cabinet in which, before the election, the role of shadow science minister was held by MP Chi Onwurah. Other MPs previously on Labour’s shadow cabinet include Matt Rodda and Chris Evans.
A handful of appointments are still to be made in the tech department, with Peter Kyle securing the top job at DSIT and Chris Bryant being named minister of state.
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