How on earth is Chris Grayling still in the cabinet?

Politics Explained: The taxpayer is still paying the price of his stint as justice secretary

For failing, flailing Grayling, the transport brief has rarely been plain sailing (PA)

Of all the social media posts that followed the dismissal of Gavin Williamson, perhaps the cruellest was from Benjamin Butterworth: “Imagine being so bad you get sacked from a Cabinet Chris Grayling is still in.”

Yet May 2019 did not start too badly for the secretary of state for transport.

Five cases challenging his decision to back a third runway at Heathrow were dismissed at the High Court. And unlike the corresponding month in 2018, the Department for Transport (DfT) is not overseeing the biggest single overhaul of train timetables in UK rail history – which turned into Britain’s biggest single rail fiasco of the 21st century.