Former Justice Secretary Robert Buckland has been appointed as Welsh Secretary, replacing Simon Hart.

BBC political correspondent Ione Wells says no Conservatives from Welsh seats took up the role.

However Buckland, who is the MP for South Swindon, is originally from the market town of Llanelli in south Wales.

He was the justice secretary in Boris Johnson's cabinet from July 2019 to September 2021 - when he was sacked in a reshuffle.

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer is demanding Boris Johnson stand down as PM immediately, saying it's not fair on the country for him to stay on as caretaker prime minister.

"He needs to go, he can't cling on," Starmer says.

"His own party has decided it's time - so they can't inflict him on the country for the next few months."

Insisting Labour will take matters into its own hands if necessary, Starmer warns the Tories that if they don't get rid of Johnson "Labour will, in the national interest, bring a no confidence vote - because this can't go on".

"The change we need is not just at the top, we need a change of government. We need a Labour government."

James Cleverly has been appointed as education secretary - the third person to hold that post in a matter of days.

He replaces Michelle Donelan, who quit after less than two days in the role.

Donelan herself replaced Nadhim Zahawi, who was promoted to chancellor after Rishi Sunak resigned.

Clevery has been MP for Braintree in Essex since 2015, and was chairman of the Conservative Party in 2019-2020.

He was a Brexit minister in 2019 and has had two stints as a foreign office minister, most recently for Europe and North America.

Image source, Getty Images

Boris Johnson has appointed Greg Clark as the new Levelling Up Secretary, replacing Michael Gove.

Kit Malthouse becomes Chancellor for the Duchy of Lancaster, the most senior minister in the Cabinet Office after the prime minister.

A strong Johnson loyalist, Malthouse has been minister for work and pensions, housing minister and most recently, policing minister and justice minister at the same time. The MP for North West Hampshire was also deputy mayor for policing and for business under Boris Johnson when he was London mayor.

Greg Clark served as local government minister, treasury minister and education minister during the coalition years, before becoming business secretary from 2016 until Boris Johnson became PM and removed him in 2019. He's more recently been a trade envoy to Japan - and voted against Johnson in the June no-confidence vote.

We're told Johnson has appointed a full replacement cabinet, so we'll update you when we hear the other names.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Boris Johnson needs to spend another 28 days as prime minister if he is to outlast Theresa May's tenure in Downing Street.

If Johnson remains in office until 4 August - despite signalling his intention to resign - he will have outlasted his immediate predecessor.

He has however just reached another symbolic milestone for his time in Downing Street.

Today marks the point when he passes the 1,078 days clocked up by Neville Chamberlain, who was Conservative prime minister between 1937 and 1940.

Image source, .

Iain Watson
Political correspondent

Ministers who resign are entitled to severance pay and get 25% of their full ministerial salary. It's emerged that with so many quitting their posts this week, it's been calculated that the total set to be paid out could be as high as £420,000.

In the Commons, minister Michael Ellis suggested the government can't do much about this, because the rules are laid down in legislation.

Michelle Donelan, who resigned earlier having been appointed Education Secretary less than 48 hours ago, says she will donate her £16,876.25 severance pay to "a local charity".

Chris Mason
Political editor

A full cabinet has been appointed, I am told.

Boris Johnson is expected to appoint new ministers shortly, a No 10 source has told PA news agency.

Johnson is set to resign as Conservative leader today, but still hopes to remain as prime minister until autuumn.

A No 10 source tells PA: "The prime minister will shortly make new appointments to his ministerial team."

Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson's former right-hand man turned nemesis, has urged Conservatives to remove him as PM today, rather than let him stay as caretaker prime minister.

Johnson is set to resign as Conservative leader later today, but hopes to stay on until autumn on an interim basis while a successor is appointed.

But Cummings, who has consistently attacked Johnson since he was sacked from No 10 in November 2020, tweeted: "Evict TODAY, or he'll cause CARNAGE."

The ex-No 10 adviser added that deputy PM Dominic Raab should become the interim PM by this evening.

Iain Watson
Political correspondent

There is a growing head of steam for Boris Johnson to go sooner rather than later, with Tory MPs Bob Neill and Aaron Bell - who publicly called for Johnson's resignation over partygate - questioning in the Commons whether he can really have an extended period as a caretaker.

And more are questioning his intentions privately and suggesting Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab takes over temporarily instead.

A reminder: he will resign as Tory leader later today but wants to stay on as prime minister until autumn while a new leader is selected.

The process of selecting a new Conservative Party leader - and therefore prime minister - will begin once Boris Johnson officially resigns from the post later.

Let's take a look at how it works:

Image source, .

The deputy chair of the influential 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs has joined colleagues calling for Boris Johnson to be replaced as prime minister immediately.

Johnson is set to quit as party leader today but hopes to stay as PM until autumn to allow a leadership contest to be held and a successor appointed.

But Nus Ghani, MP for Wealden, said Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab should take over from Boris Johnson immediately on an interim basis.

She told BBC's Woman's Hour he could do so this afternoon.

Iain Watson
Political correspondent

Thoughts are turning to the leadership race in Conservative circles.

"We will rattle through the process," one MP predicts - probably two votes a day at Westminster to whittle the candidates down to the final two, who will then go to a vote of the members after a summer campaign.

But that initial process is likely to be intensely fought.

So far, Suella Braverman, the attorney-general, is the only person to definitively throw her hat in the ring. Others, including Steve Baker, have heavily hinted they will stand.

Iain Watson
Political correspondent

So can Boris Johnson really stay on until the autumn, as he hopes?

"That's the whopping question," a former minister tells me.

It may be possible to make only essential ministerial appointments given the imminence of Parliament's summer recess.

But some Conservative MPs want reassurances that the outgoing prime minister will genuinely act as a caretaker and, as one put it, only half-jokingly, "not take us to war".

Chris Mason
Political editor

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is cutting short her trip to a G20 meeting in Indonesia and returning to London.

She will issue a statement "shortly", I am told.

Despite his imminent resignation as Conservative Party leader, Boris Johnson says he wants to stay on as prime minister until autumn, with the Tories selecting a new leader over the summer.

But some Tories have already come out against the idea.

• Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng says a new leader is needed "as soon as practicable"
• Conservative MP Nick Gibb says he must go now
• Ex-Scottish Conservatives' leader Ruth Davidson tweets: "There's no way he can stay on until October. It's arrant nonsense to think he can."
• Simon Hoare MP tweets "it is beyond credulity that Mr Johnson can stay in office", even for the time being
• In the Commons, Tory MP Aaron Bell says it will not be tenable for Johnson to stay as caretaker prime minister if he cannot fill the ministerial posts he needs to

Image source, Reuters

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has suggested he does not want Boris Johnson to stay until the autumn, saying a new leader is needed "as soon as practicable".

He has tweeted:, external "What a depressing state of affairs. So much needless damage caused.

"We now need a new leader as soon as practicable. Someone who can rebuild trust, heal the country, and set out a new, sensible and consistent economic approach to help families."

He adds "Westminster is a mess", but the "wheels of government must continue".

EU fears next PM could be 'even worse' for Brusselspublished at 10:28 British Summer Time 7 July 2022

10:28 BST 7 July 2022

Jessica Parker
Brussels Correspondent

Officials and diplomats in Brussels are watching the disintegration of Boris Johnson’s government with great interest and no doubt a degree of glee.

From his time reporting on the bloc for the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper to becoming the poster boy for Brexit, the prime minister is not a popular man at EU HQ.

But, putting the past aside, there is also the very current dispute about how to fix the treaty which governs post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland.

The line-up of would-be successors to Johnson won’t necessarily take a softer stance on the issue.

So while most in the EU won't miss Johnson, they also talk about fears that No 10 could soon be occupied by someone they’d regard as “even worse".

Reaction is coming in from around the political world to the news that Boris Johnson will step down as Tory leader and later, prime minister.

"All four nations need a stable UK government and I am therefore pleased to see the prime minister has now done the right thing and agreed to resign," says Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford.

Johnson wants to be PM until autumn to have a swan songpublished at 10:21 British Summer Time 7 July 2022

10:21 BST 7 July 2022

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

Boris Johnson wants to stay on in office until the autumn. The resignations this morning were enough to tip him over the edge.

It leaves an extraordinary situation where the country is facing a cost of living crisis as well as the ongoing war in Ukraine.

There are real questions over the constitution - with the Scottish government demanding another referendum on independence - and over Northern Ireland and the protocol.

I suspect the reason Johnson wants to stay prime minister until autumn is to try and sort some of those issues out - to try and have a swan song to say "there are things I want to deliver before I go".