The UK is now on its eighth chancellor, ninth foreign secretary and 10th education secretary in a decade. That’s on top of the sixth new prime minister.
The turnover since 2016 has been driven by the increasing scale and frequency of reshuffles carried out by successive premiers, with sweeping changes happening almost annually.
John Healey is the eighth new Chancellor of the Exchequer since 2016, in a sequence that began with Philip Hammond (2016-19), then Sajid Javid (2019-20), Rishi Sunak (2020-22), Nadhim Zahawi (63 days in 2022), Kwasi Kwarteng (31 days in 2022), Jeremy Hunt (2022-24) and most recently Rachel Reeves (2024-26).
By contrast, in the 10 years before 2016, only three people held the role of chancellor: Gordon Brown (up to 2007), Alistair Darling (2007-10) and George Osborne (2010-16).
There have been nine foreign secretaries in the past decade: Boris Johnson (2016-18), Jeremy Hunt (2018-19), Dominic Raab (2019-21), Liz Truss (2021-22), James Cleverly (2022-23), David Cameron (2023-24), David Lammy (2024-25), Yvette Cooper (2025-26) and now Ed Miliband.
This is more than twice the number in the preceding 10 years: Margaret Beckett (2006-07), David Miliband (2007-10), William Hague (2010-14) and Philip Hammond (2014-16).
The 10 education secretaries since 2016 began with Justine Greening (2016-18), then Damian Hinds (2018-19), Gavin Williamson (2019-21), Nadhim Zahawi (2021-22), Michelle Donelan (two days in 2022), James Cleverly (61 days in 2022), Kit Malthouse (49 days in 2022), Gillian Keegan (2022-24), Bridget Phillipson (2024-26) and now Lucy Powell.
There were just four education secretaries in the 10 years up to 2016: Alan Johnson (2006-07), Ed Balls (2007-10), Michael Gove (2010-14) and Nicky Morgan (2014-16).
There have also been eight Northern Ireland secretaries in the past decade, nine new health secretaries and 10 different environment secretaries.
But beating even these is the post of justice secretary, which has changed hands 11 times since 2016 – though only 10 different people have held the role, with Dominic Raab doing the job on two non-consecutive occasions.
Among those who kept their jobs in the latest reshuffle, Shabana Mahmood remains the eighth person to hold the role of home secretary in the past 10 years, while Lisa Nandy is the ninth culture secretary.
The post of housing secretary has changed hands 10 times, though eight different people have done the job, with Michael Gove and Angela Rayner each having two stints in the role.
