Justine Greening‘s 18 months at the Department for Education mean that she had had one of the shortest tenures in the role, despite leaving a legacy of significant changes to school funding and primary assessment.
Of the 20 people who have held the post in its various guises since Margaret Thatcher was appointed in 1970, the average time in the position has been 868 days - almost two-and-a-half years.
Sir Keith Joseph held the post for the longest - for 1,710 days between 1981 and 1986 - while Alan Johnson’s 418-day tenure at the end of Tony Blair’s premiership was the shortest of any recent education secretary.
Ms Greening’s 544 days at the DfE mean she had been there just over a fortnight longer than Kenneth Clarke in the early 1990s, but six months shorter than her immediate predecessor, Nicky Morgan.
Michael Gove, the most influential education secretary of recent years, held the position for four years and two months - the second longest in the post-Thatcher era.
See the full list of education secretaries since 1970 below:
Name
Start date
End date
Days in post
Margaret Thatcher
20/06/1970
04/03/1974
1353
Reginald Prentice
05/03/1974
10/06/1975
462
Fred Mulley
10/06/1975
10/09/1976
458
Shirley Williams
10/09/1976
04/05/1979
966
Mark Carlisle
05/05/1979
14/09/1981
863
Sir Keith Joseph
14/09/1981
21/05/1986
1710
Kenneth Baker
21/05/1986
24/07/1989
1160
John MacGregor
24/07/1989
02/11/1990
466
Kenneth Clarke
02/11/1990
10/04/1992
525
John Patten
10/04/1992
20/07/1994
831
Gillian Shephard
20/07/1994
02/05/1997
1017
David Blunkett
02/05/1997
08/06/2001
1498
Estelle Morris
08/06/2001
24/10/2002
503
Charles Clarke
24/10/2002
15/12/2004
783
Ruth Kelly
15/12/2004
05/05/2006
506
Alan Johnson
05/05/2006
27/06/2007
418
Ed Balls
28/06/2007
11/05/2010
1048
Michael Gove
11/05/2010
15/07/2014
1526
Nicky Morgan
15/07/2014
14/07/2016
730
Justine Greening
14/07/2016
08/01/2018
544
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