Liz Truss makes close ally Coffey first female deputy prime minister as she builds cabinet of supporters

Therese Coffey at the launch of Liz Truss’s campaign to be Conservative Party leader (Kirsty O’Connor/PA) (PA Wire)

Liz Truss has appointed her close ally and friend Thérèse Coffey deputy prime minister as well as health secretary.

Ms Coffey is the first female deputy prime minister in UK political history, and creates the first pairing of female PM and DPM.

She backed Ms Truss’s bid for the leadership from the beginning and was always expected to be rewarded with a senior post.

MP for Suffolk Coastal since 2010, Coffey served as a junior environment minister under Theresa May and was promoted within the same department by Boris Johnson before entering the cabinet as work and pensions secreary in September 2019.