AN East Lancashire MP has been reappointed to government with a new job in the key Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

Pendle's Andrew Stephenson will be a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - a slightly more junior role than he held when Boris Johnson was Prime Minister.

He said today he was 'delighted' with the job and was 'looking forward to the new challenge'.

Mr Stephenson joins Conservative Party chairman and Rossendale and Darwen MP Jake Berry in new PM Liz Truss's ministerial team.

His new department is key to East Lancashire's hopes of winning multi-million pound grants from the government's Levelling Up fund to regenerate their economies and towns.

Several councils - including Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn and Lancashire County - currently have bids submitted to the government for the cash pot and related kitties.

Levelling Up Secretary Simon Clarke said: "Couldn’t be more delighted that Andrew Stephenson is joining our ministerial team - one of the most reliable, effective people in Parliament with a great track record of delivery."

Mr Berry said: "What a brilliant appointment.
"Andrew is someone who has been at the forefront of driving the levelling up agenda forward in East Lancashire. It is fantastic that he will now be have the opportunity to do the same for the whole country - but always with Lancashire in mind."

Mr Stephenson, first elected in May 2010, had briefly served as Tory chairman with a seat in Cabinet over the summer after the swathe of resignations which forced Mr Johnson out of Downing Street.

Before that he had been a minister of state at the Department for Transport from February 2020 to July 2022 and a minister of state at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development from July 2019 to February 2020.

Mr Stephenson said on Twitter: "Delighted to be appointed as a Minister in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities working with Simon Clarke and the team. Looking forward to the new challenge."

He had previously served as a junior minister in the the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and as a Government Whip.

Hyndburn Council leader Miles Parkinson said: "This is good news.

"East Lancashire needs levelling up and it good that it has a voice at the departmental table on the issue."