Damian Hinds, the former education secretary and schools minister, has been named shadow education secretary in Rishi Sunak’s caretaker opposition team.
The new shadow team is only expected to remain in place until a new Conservative leader is elected.
Sunak announced he would resign as the party’s leader after its routing in Thursday’s general election, in which Labour won a landslide of 411 seats. A timetable for a leadership vote has not been set out.
It comes after Gillian Keegan, the previous education secretary, lost her seat in Parliament to the Liberal Democrats.
Hinds served as education secretary in Theresa May’s administration between 2018 and 2019. He then returned to the Department for Education last November as schools minister.
He will now shadow newly-appointed education secretary Bridget Phillipson until the next Tory leader reshuffles their top team.
He is the first Conservative shadow education secretary since Michael Gove held the role in 2010.
