May demotes Truss from justice secretary cabinet role, replacing her with anti-LGBT rights MP David Lidington

Liz Truss has been replaced as justice secretary by David Lidington, the MP for Aylesbury who has consistently opposed LGBT rights and also voted in favour of repealing the Human Rights Act.

Liz Truss’s troubled 11 months as justice secretary came to an end in Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet reshuffle on Sunday 11 June, following a disastrous election for the government in which it lost its majority. Truss’s appointment was historic, as she was the first woman to hold the role of lord chancellor in British history – a long-overdue milestone. However, her time in charge was notable for a series of mis-steps and high-profile clashes with the judiciary – she infamously failed to defend judges branded “enemies of the people” by the Daily Mail after they ruled in favour of Parliament on the right to trigger Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, which began the United Kingdom’s process of exiting the European Union.

Truss’s replacement is David Lidington, a non-lawyer, former campaigner for keeping EU membership and a politician who has a clear voting record against gay rights. Lidington is known to favour a ‘traditional’ view of marriage, but also voted against the civil partnerships bill for gay couples in 2004, which many other MPs who opposed gay marriage for religious reasons were happy to vote through. He also consistently voted against lowering the age of consent for gay men from 18 to 16, to bring it in line with the law on the heterosexual age of consent, and voted against allowing schools to teach children that some people are gay.

Human rights advocates will be concerned at Lidington’s appointment, as he voted to repeal the Human Rights Act in 2016.