Labour scrutinises Liz Truss as new foreign secretary after major Cabinet reshuffle

Labour put the pressure on Liz Truss on day one of the job

Labour has piled the pressure on new foreign secretary Liz Truss to deliver in the role after she was promoted in Wednesday's Cabinet reshuffle.

Speaking on ITV's Peston show, shadow international trade secretary Emily Thornberry accused Ms Truss of having not delivered new deals in her time as international trade secretary and said she had not been across the detail.

Ms Truss is popular among the Conservative Party members who have seen her as successful in the role having signed free trade deals with Australia and Singapore.

The South West Norfolk MP replaced outgoing Dominic Raab after Wednesday's major reshuffle, with Mr Raab moved to deputy prime minister - as well as lord chancellor and justice secretary.

"There's quite a lot of things that she hasn't really delivered on," Ms Thornberry said.

"She's been in the job two years and two months, she's yet to deliver a deal that's different from the deals we had under the European Union

"Detail is a really important thing that she's not that fussed about. In that way, I think she's a bit like Boris Johnson - so in that way the foreign office may end up with more of Boris Johnson but in a blue dress."

But Conservative MP Caroline Nokes, chair of the women and equalities committee, praised the appointment.

Caroline Nokes praises the appointment of Liz Truss as foreign secretary

"I think he (Boris Johnson) was very keen to see someone deliver.

"Over the past 18 months I have given the PM a very hard time about the lack of women in his top team and we've seen a big promotion for Liz Truss.

"There are more women there and I'm pleased to see that," Ms Nokes told ITV's Peston.

Ms Truss tweeted she was "delighted" with the new role, writing that she looked forward to "working with allies to tackle the greatest global challenges, promoting a positive, outward-looking global Britain, and ensuring our foreign policy delivers for people across."

On Wednesday night she also praised a new defence deal between the UK, Australia and the US as a "landmark security partnership".

Labour's Ms Thornberry said more could be done, however, on diversity within the Cabinet.

She told ITV's Peston "it's not enough by itself" and called for more appointments of ministers based on experience.

Among the other changes made on Wednesday, Gavin Williamson was sacked and replaced by Nadhim Zahawi as education secretary.

Priti Patel kept her job as home secretary, despite speculation to the contrary, and Michael Gove was drafted in as the new housing secretary.

Tweeting on Wednesday night, Mr Johnson pledged to "get on with the job" with his new Cabinet.

Epidemiologist Professor John Edmunds warns Covid cases may increase in coming weeks, but it is unclear where this epidemic will go

Also speaking on ITV's Peston show was Professor John Edmunds, Epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Asked how much upward pressure we should see on the NHS from people returning to work and to school, along with the colder weather, as the nation heads into colder months, he said evidence elsewhere has shown that cases may indeed rise.

"I think if we look for instance at Scotland then we can see around the time schools have opened then there's been a fairly rapid increase in cases. Although that's settled and actually started to fall a little bit now, which is good news, actually".

He added: "So I think it's unclear where this is going to go, I don't think any of us expect the numbers of cases to fall immediately, and so the pressure will be probably some increase in cases now in the coming weeks which will inevitably result in increases in hospitalisations, and unfortunately deaths as well."

Asked why suppressive measures haven't been implemented straight away, Mr Edmunds said it was a "political decision" that needed to be weighed up against people's freedoms and the economy.

"It's very difficult to predict where this epidemic might go now", he added. "We're not in control of it in the same way that we were before and so we are allowing the epidemic to run to some extent and in which case it's inherently a little bit more difficult to predict it."