Maria Miller Replaces Jeremy Hunt As Culture Secretary

Junior minister in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Maria Miller has been promoted to the role of the UK’s culture secretary, as Jeremy Hunt was given the job of Health Secretary in today’s Cabinet reshuffle.

Miller, the 48-year old MP for Basingstoke, was the minister for disabled people in the DWP and a surprise appointment. She will be head of the Deaprtment for Culture Media And Sport (DCMS), a role including looking after the UK’s comnmunications and media strategies. She will also act as minister for women and equality.

The Bell Tolls for Jeremy Hunt

Although Hunt’s move is a promotion, the role of managing the embattled National Health Service is described as a poisoned chalice, and one where Hunt’s support for homoeopathy could create new controversies to match those which his support for Rupert Murdoch produced at the DCMS.

Hunt said the health secretary job was “the biggest privilege” of his life. Radio presenters will be relieved that his new job title has the same initial letter as his surname, hopefully reducing the risk of embarrassing slip ups, like that of Radio 4 Today’s James Naughtie, who famously introduced Hunt with an accidental expletive.

Maria Miller, meanwhile, said on her website that she is “delighted” with the job, and “very much looking forward to tackling the many challenges that the role will bring”.

She has experience in industry, having worked for Grey, an ad agency, and also at a PR company, Rowland, owned by Saatchi and Saatchi, as well as working in marketing at oil giant Texaco. She has an Economics degree from the London School of Economics and three children.

Miller had a brush with controversy when she appeared in a Conservative advertising campaign playing the role of a member of the public angry at Tony Blair, as she failed to mention she was a Conservative Party member.

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