Chris Grayling promoted to Transport Secretary by Theresa May

The Secretary of State for Transport will oversee Heathrow expansion and HS2

Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary (Getty)

Conservative MP Chris Grayling has been promoted to Secretary of State for Transport by Theresa May.

Mr Grayling, who has been Leader of the House of Commons since the 2015 general election, will oversee Heathrow Expansion and the future of the HS2 rail line.

He previously served as the Justice Secretary from 2012, and before that was a junior minister at various departments.

He has some familiarity with his new brief, having been the Conservatives’ shadow secretary of state for transport from 2005 to 2007 while Labour was in government.

In 2009 the Independent reported that Mr Grayling had privately voiced concern about the Tories’ opposition to Heathrow expansion.

Mr Grayling was a staunch campaigner to leave the European Union.

He told the BBC yesterday that he had been given reassurances by Ms May that she would follow through on the referendum result to leave the EU.

"I got a promise from her that she really meant that Brexit meant Brexit," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

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