Sunak names Alex Chalk as Justice Secretary

One man’s loss is another’s gain. Rishi Sunak has acted swiftly to fill the gap left by Dominic Raab’s resignation, appointing 46-year old barrister Alex Chalk as his new Justice Secretary. Like Sunak, he is a Wykehamist who quit Boris Johnson’s cabinet back in July, citing the Paterson, Partygate and Pincher scandals. The appointment flies in the face of reports which suggested that Sunak would appoint a woman to the post, with men occupying three times as many cabinet posts as women.

Awaiting Chalk is an in-tray full of problems. He is the tenth Lord Chancellor in eleven years and inherits a ministry widely regarded as a troubled department, even by Whitehall standards. He will have to deal with a lengthy courts backlog, overcrowded prisons, parole reform and widespread discontent in the legal profession. Labour have sought to make political capital out of the woeful rate of rape prosecutions while Chalk will also have to decide if he wants to keep Raab’s pet project of a British Bill of Rights, at a time when some Tory backbenchers are urging the UK to leave the ECHR.