New faces at DfT after PM’s cabinet reshuffle

New postings include Dr Stephen Ladyman as minister of state. He takes Tony McNulty’s position. McNulty moves to the Home Office.

The new parliamentary secretaries are Derek Twigg and Karen Buck.

Kim Howells, a GT-owning cyclist, leaves the DfT and becomes minister for the Middle East in the Foreign Office.

Charlotte Atkins’ short ministerial career is over, at least for the time being. She was appointed to a junior ministerial post at the DfT in September but removed in the latest reshuffle. At the end of April she made a well-reported gaffe in a radio interview, calling the council tax "regressive."

Atkins was the minister responsible for walking and cycling issues. There’s no news yet on which of the three new appointments will take her place but the safe money is on Karen Buck.

A transport buff and Whitehall watcher called her "bright, and very quick at picking up a brief."

She was against the private-public partnership funding of the London Underground.

The US bike industry used to have a Buck-a-Bike fund raising programme, the UK industry now has a new slogan, Buck for Bikes…