BRITAIN’S new Cabinet secretaries have been urged to stop arming Saudi Arabia and get tough on tackling Britain’s energy crisis.

Grant Shapps has been appointed defence secretary in PM Rishi Sunak’s mini-reshuffle after Ben Wallace formally resigned from the post today.

Mr Shapps, who has never held a role in the Ministry of Defence before, will oversee Britain’s support to Ukraine during its resistance against the Russian invasion.

Claire Coutinho, a close ally to Mr Sunak, was promoted from education minister to replace Mr Shapps as energy secretary.

But pressure has already begun mounting on the new Cabinet secretaries to do better than their predecessors.

End Fuel Poverty Coalition co-ordinator Simon Francis said: “The new Energy Secretary’s inbox is already groaning under the weight of vital decisions which need to be made to reform Britain’s broken energy system.

“Energy bills remain at record levels with every unit of energy costing double what it did in winter 2020/21, with daily standing charges also increasing and customers in record levels of energy debt.”

He said Ms Coutinho needs to secure proper financial support to help people stay warm this winter, amend the Energy Bill to ban the forced transfer of households on to pre-payment meters and reform the electricity market to ensure customers can enjoy more affordable renewable energy.

Shadow energy and net-zero secretary Ed Miliband highlighted that Ms Coutinho’s appointment makes her the sixth energy secretary in less than four years.

He said: “The truth is that the reshuffling of the Tory deckchairs will not get Britain a proper energy policy that delivers lower bills, energy security, good jobs and climate leadership.

“The new energy secretary needs to recognise that Grant Shapps’ approach has been a disaster and distance herself from it. 

“His opposition to clean, homegrown power has damaged Britain’s energy security, alarmed business and driven away investors.”

The Peace Pledge Union (PPU) also called on Mr Shapps to make a clean break with Mr Wallace’s enthusiastic support for arms companies.

The pacifist group demanded he end the government’s military support for regimes such as Saudi Arabia and cancel the DSEI arms fair due to be held in London in September.

PPU campaigns manager Symon Hill said: “While ministers rightly condemn Russian atrocities in Ukraine, all these comments are undermined and discredited by their provision of arms and military training to the forces of Saudi Arabia, who are killing civilians in Yemen in much the same way that Putin’s forces are killing civilians in Russia.”