The Home Office will be getting a new policing minister whose parents were both Northants police officers

A junior minister from the Ministry of Justice has been drafted into the Home Office as a temporary policing minister.

Tom Pursglove has been moved to replace Kit Malthouse.

The appointment was made late last night as part of a frantic reshuffle following the mass resgination of government ministers.

Mr Pursglove had been Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice and Tackling Illegal Migration since 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament for Corby since May 2015. 

At the time of his election, he was the youngest Conservative MP.

He graduated in 2010 and was a local councillor prior to his election.

In confirming his appointment on social media, he revealed he comes from a policing family.

He said: “As the son of two former Northants Police officers, safer streets matter to me. I'm honoured to have been asked to serve as the Policing Minister during this period of transition. We are putting more police officers out on the beat, catching criminals and deterring crime.”

Greater Manchester’s Chair, Lee Broadbent, responded: “It would have been nice if your first tweet as Policing Minister addressed the real problems we faced, like officers using food banks or the building mental health crisis or that six forces are in special measures as opposed to trotting out the same misleading guff.”

Mr Malthouse, who has worked with Boris Johnson since their days at the Greater London Assembley, is being promoted to the Cabinet to be the new Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

In a social media statement, Mr Malthouse said he had stayed in post to ensure critical issues linked to policing and national security had been protected.

His last official meeting was with the head of Interpol, Secretary General Jürgen Stock, to discuss transnational crime.

Mr Malthouse said: “The last few days have been extremely difficult, but throughout I have been very conscious of my constitutional duty and the importance of the Home Office in our public safety architecture, and the need for ministers to continue their vital function within it.”

Home secretary Priti Patel said she would be continuing in post to ensure national security issus that require oversight by law are dealt with.

One of her duties yesterday was meeting FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Mr Malthouse led the roll-out of alcohol tags and worked with staff organisations to develop the Police Covenant. He also was key in ensuring post-Brexit arrangements for international information-sharing and warrants were secured.

But he was also comprehensively defeated by the Treasury over pay – which resulted in the pay freeze – and by the Department of Health at the height of COVID-19 over the request for response officers to be among the first to get vaccinated.

Critical issus ahead include not only settling the pay row but helping forces placed in special measures by HMI plus improving support for new recruits and repairing public trust.

Police Federation Chair Steve Hartshorn said: "Policing is the service of first and last resort, the service that cannot say no, but forces have been stretched to breaking point and that has had a detrimental impact not just on the service we have been able to provide but also on the officers themselves."

He added: “The government needs to act now as policing is in crisis.”