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Reshuffle after Andrews resigns

Huw Lewis has been appointed as the new Education Minister. Leighton Andrews resigned from the role after he was criticised for supporting a primary school in his constituency - against his own policy of closures due to surplus places.

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Resignation inevitable says opposition leader

Opposition leader Andrew RT Davies has claimed that Leighton Andrews had to resign after first campaigning against a reduction in services at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital and then urging Rhondda Cynon Taff Council to look again at plans to close a school in his constituency.

After the failure of Carwyn Jones to endorse his Education Minister’s position during my questions to him today, it was inevitable that he had to go. The actions of the Education Minister - both over the Royal Glamorgan Hospital and now school closures - called into question not only the Education Minister’s judgement, but that of the First Minister himself.

– Leader of the Opposition Andrew RT Davies AM

Plaid Cymru's education spokesperson Simon Thomas had already called for the Education Minister to lose his role in deciding appeals against school closures on the grounds he had damaged his impartiality.

The Education Minister’s long-held position on school surplus places has been undermined by his actions and this undermines the Welsh Government as a whole. [His resignation] is the correct decision to take when collective cabinet responsibility has been abdicated and you find yourself arguing against your own policies.

– Plaid Cymru Education Spokesperson Simon Thomas AM

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