Today there has been something of a reshuffle at the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. The new Secretary of State, Steve Barclay was rumoured this morning to be about to ditch Taunton MP, Rebecca Pow. Pow was (indeed still is) the Minster for Environmental Quality and Resilience.

Rumours of course are just that. It is true to say tThere is something of a reshuffle going on. For instance a DEFRA spokesperson told us that Robbie Moore will be joining Defra as Trudy Harrison has stepped down.

But Pow is not being sacked. In fact the spokesperson confirmed that far from being fired: “as part of her portfolio, Minister Pow will now be responsible for protected landscapes.”

Which makes sense as a fit with resilience and environmental quality. The full list of new portfolios at DEFRA will be finalised in due course. On hearing news of her appointment she said: “I’m honoured to take on ministerial responsibility for Protected Landscapes and look forward to working together to boost outcomes for people and nature in England’s most special places.”

Ms Pow will no doubt repay the confidence the Secretary of State has shown in her. That said, there can be no doubt that it has been a difficult 18 months for the Taunton MP.

Her “talking tough” with the water companies involved letting them do next to nothing until 2035. A move widely ridiculed in the face of what the rest of the country sees as a climate and ecological emergency.

Rebecca Pow did of course resign as part of the mass resignation of ministers in July 2022. Ministers resigned in an attempt to force Johnson from office after telling one too many lies.

Timing though is everything. Whilst everyone else resigned to force Johnson to go, Pow timed her resignation rather curiously. She was the one minister who appeared to resign (her letter first appeared at 10.13 on the morning of the 7 July) after Boris Johnson finally stepped down (reported by the BBC at 9.11 on the same day).

Almost as if she didn’t want to give up the job until she knew it was safe to do so. Which did not fool Liz Truss. And that is a phrase we have seldom had cause to use before. Pow was left out in the cold during the brief Truss premiership.

She was not re-appointed as a minister until Rishi Sunak was elected Prime Minister in October 2022.