The BBC has announced that Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman will leave Defra in a Cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister David Cameron.

This is the first major reshuffle since the coalition came to power in 2010. Although Defra declined to comment, the BBC’s Political editor Nick Robinson said this morning that the Prime Minister had met with "former environment secretary Caroline Spelman" to inform her of her removal.

There were presentiments that Spelman could be replaced as early as March this year, when the Daily Mail suggested that she, along with other ministers, could lose their positions in a reshuffle.

Following aborted plans to sell off swathes of national forest, a U-turn on proposals to capture or kill birds of prey to benefit game birds and continued high spending at Defra, Ms Spelman’s position was made more vulnerable. Spelman has also borne the brunt of criticism at the government’s repeated failure to live up to its claims of being “the greenest… ever.”

Furthermore, the former environment secretary has proven unpopular with hard right Tory backbenchers and drew unwanted attention in February when a botched gagging order on the Daily Star spilled over into the press.

Although many top-level ministers are expected to retain their positions in the current reshuffle, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s future is uncertain in light of reactions to his deeply unpopular NHS reforms.

Tweet