Claire Coutinho has been appointed the new secretary of state for energy and net zero.

In a mini reshuffle today, she replaced Grant Shapps, who became defence secretary.  He replaced Ben Wallace, who is leaving parliament at the next election.

Ms Coutinho, who represents East Surrey, is the first MP from the 2019 intake to join the cabinet and, at 38, its youngest member.

Her department is in charge of the UK’s response to climate change and deciding what energy we use and where it comes from.

Reacting to her appointment, Dave Timms, head of political affairs at Friends of the Earth, said:

“Good riddance to Grant Shapps. He seemed to be more concerned with playing childish politics on social media than the serious policies needed to address the greatest challenge of our time.

“He has promoted new drilling for oil and gas against the advice of his own climate advisors, allowed speculation about whether vital deadlines for the transition to electric vehicles and heat pumps would be stuck to, and failed to invest in home insulation.

“The country needs a serious Secretary of State that will step up to give the certainty and support that businesses and people need to invest in the changes that will cut both emissions and the cost of living. We hope Claire Coutinho will be that person.”

Ms Coutinho was made a junior minister at the education department in October 2022 with responsibility for families and wellbeing. Before that, she was briefly a junior minister at work and pensions in the Liz Truss administration.

Like most Conservative MPs, she voted against an unsuccessful Labour motion in October 2022 to ban fracking.

But she was previously a member of the Conservative Environment Network, which opposed fracking. She was also vice-chair of a parliamentary group on how the finance sector could contribute to reaching net zero.

Before becoming an MP, Ms Coutinho was an advisor to Rishi Sunak when he was chief secretary to the treasury. She continued as his parliamentary aide when he became chancellor.

She is the daughter of immigrants – her parents came to the UK from India in the 1970s to work as doctors.

She studied maths and philosophy at Oxford University before joining the investment bank, Merrill Lynch. She later worked at the centre right think tank, the Centre for Social Justice, the industry group, Housing and Finance Institute, and the accountancy firm, KPMG.