Who is new minister without portfolio Esther McVey?

Monday's cabinet reshuffle was dominated by the bolt-from-the-blue news that ex-PM David Cameron was returning to government.

But he wasn't the only ex-minister coming back into the cabinet.

Esther McVey, who served as the work and pensions secretary in 2018, has also been given a ministerial job.

Officially she has been given the title of minister without portfolio in the Cabinet Office.

Unofficially she has been dubbed the "minister for common sense".

Who is Esther McVey?

Ms McVey was born in Liverpool in 1967 and almost immediately put into a Barnardo's foster home by her young parents who didn't have the money to look after her.

She stayed in the charity's care for the first two years of her life, before returning to her parents.

Speaking to the Political Thinking with Nick Robinson podcast, she said she didn't feel any resentment towards her family for their decision.

"That, to me, is love at its utmost - knowing you can't look after someone as much as you'd like to so you dare to give up your little child."

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She was educated at a private girls' school where she became head girl. Faced with a choice being ballet and law school, she picked the latter.

However, while waitressing in a showbiz restaurant in London she decided she wanted to be a TV presenter instead.

In the course of her media career she worked on a range of programmes, including a documentary about naturists on Channel 5, the religious Heaven and Earth Show on BBC One and ITV's breakfast show GMTV.

In the early 2000s she began pursuing a career in politics and in 2010 won the Merseyside seat of Wirral West for the Conservatives.

Esther McVey presents a show on GB News alongside her husband Philip Davies, also a Conservative MP

In David Cameron's government, she served as a minister in the work and pensions department, where she became a lightning rod for much of the anger about cuts to benefits.

She lost her seat in the 2015 election, but returned to Parliament two years later, this time as the MP for the Tatton constituency in Cheshire. She was made work and pensions secretary in Theresa May's government.

Ms McVey has been open about her political ambitions, telling ITV's Loose Women that she would like to be prime minister and in 2019 she had a tilt at the leadership job.

However after her dismissal from Boris Johnson's ministerial team in 2020, she returned to her media career, co-hosting a show on GB News alongside her husband, Philip Davies, also a Conservative MP.

Earlier this year, Ofcom ruled that their show breached impartiality rules when they interviewed Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

What is Esther McVey's new job?

Following her return to government, Ms McVey is expected to give up her TV role.

Her appointment was one of the last to be announced on Monday and has been seen as a way of appeasing Conservative MPs on the right of the party upset at the appointment of Lord Cameron and the sacking of former Home Secretary Suella Braverman.

The government has not set out exactly what her role will involve - Downing Street has promised details in the coming days.

Pushed on the question, Conservative Party chair Richard Holden said it would include looking at issues such as freedom of speech on university campuses.

He added that Ms McVey was a "plain-speaking northerner" who would be a "great addition" to cabinet.

Joining her in the club of ex-ministers making a governmental comeback, will be Andrea Leadsom and Damian Hinds.

Dame Andrea has held senior jobs under David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson, and in 2016 ran to be leader of the Conservative Party.

She becomes a junior health minister, while Mr Hinds, a former education secretary, returns to the department from the Ministry of Justice, as minister of state.