Hopkins departure opens door for new pubs minister

Former community pubs minister Kris Hopkins has been moved from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) to the Whip’s office.

Hopkins, who replaced Brandon Lewis as community pubs minister last summer, has taken on the position of vice-chamberlain of the household.

Alongside assisting in the implementation of the Tory manifesto in parliament, Hopkins new role includes a number of royal duties, such as writing a daily report on Commons business for the Queen, and accompanying the monarch during certain social and diplomatic occasions.

Hopkins said some these ceremonial duties would ‘take a bit of getting used to’ and described his duty of returning the Queen safely from the state opening of parliament as being ‘take hostage’ in Buckingham Palace’.

The move leaves the pubs brief up for grabs within the DCLG. Potential candidates to take on the brief include new under-secretaries of state Marcus Jones and Mark Francois.

Jones supported CAMRA’s manifesto for the next government and Francois previously supported attempts to get MPs to understand the trade better by doing a shift behind the bar in his local pub.

It is understood that the role could also still fall to a minister of state, which would mean that previous incumbent Lewis could be appointed despite already having the large-scale housing and planning brief.

A spokesman for the DCLG said the new secretary of state Greg Clark would be meeting with the junior ministers imminently and portfolios would be announced shortly.