Former Farming Minister Jim Paice has lost his position in the government’s first major reshuffle, the results of which have been announced progressively throughout the day.

He will be replaced by David Heath, Liberal Democrat MP for Somerton and Fome, Somerset. Mr Heath is an optician by trade and formerly bred pigs.

Mr Paice was attending the first day of the Livestock 2012 event being held in Birmingham, where it is reported he received a phone call informing him of his replacement.

The former minister’s laissez faire response to the dairy crisis which swept the UK between July and August has been criticised, and in July, at the height of the crisis, he admitted to not knowing the price of milk. Just days later, addressing the newly formed Dairy Coalition, Paice was roundly booed for refusing to act in support of struggling farmers.  

However, in past weeks he had been acting to broker a deal on the new voluntary code of practice governing the dairy industry.

Paice's dismissal follows that of former Defra Secretary Caroline Spelman, who was replaced by North Shropshire MP Owen Patterson after bearing the brunt of backlashes against some of Defra’s more unpopular policies, including the botched forest sell-off and plans to kill or capture buzzards to benefit game birds, which were scrapped earlier this year.

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