Caroline Spelman confirmed as environment secretary

Caroline Spelman has been confirmed as the environment secretary in the newly-formed Conservative-Liberal Democrat government.

Mrs Spelman, MP for Meriden, fills the post left empty by former minister Hilary Benn.

The position had been widely tipped to to go to Nick Herbert, who had been shadow DEFRA minister since January 2009.

Before the election Mrs Spelman was the shadow secretary of state for Communities and Local Government, but she does have a background in agriculture.

She is a former sugar beet commodity secretary for the NFU and served as spokeswoman for environmental affairs for Theresa May.

Mrs Spelman said she was delighted by the appointment and pledged to work across government to meet the challenges of increasing food production, adapting to climate change and protecting the environment.

Spelman in a minute:

A somewhat surprise inclusion in the DEFRA line-up, Caroline Spelman is a former sugar beet commodity secretary for the NFU.

Before becoming MP for Meriden in the West Midlands in 1997, she was deputy director of the International Confederation of European Beet Growers in Paris, then a research fellow for the Centre for European Agricultural Studies at the University of Kent. She co-owns Spelman, Cormack & Associates, a food and biotechnology business, with her husband.

Since becoming elected she was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, later becoming spokeswoman for environmental affairs for Theresa May. In 2004 she became shadow secretary of state for Local and Devolved government affairs and was later promoted to Conservative Party chairman. Last year she became shadow secretary of state for Communities and Local Government.

Mrs Spelman lives in Dorridge with her husband, Mark and three children.