Nicky Morgan has been reappointed education secretary as prime minister David Cameron continues with his tried and tested frontbench. 

Ms Morgan secured her seat in Loughborough early on Friday morning, extending her majority in the east midlands town from just over 3,000 votes to more than 9,000. 

The former solicitor took over from Michael Gove at the Department for Education back in July, and her peformance over the last 10 months has led to her being backed once again by Mr Cameron. 

There had been rumours circulating on social media that Mr Gove could be making an unlikely return into Sanctuary Buildings, but Ms Morgan has been deemed a safe pair of hands in Whitehall, and has gone to great lengths to reach out to the profession. 

Among the first priorities waiting for her in her inbox when she returns to office on Monday will be a decision over whether to allow the Weald of Kent Grammar School to open a statellite school 10 miles away. 

A new education bill is also expected early in this Parliament, as the Conservatives look to push through as much legislation as possible, while their opponents are still in disarray.

And the education secretary will also be keen to pick up from where she left off on the issue of teachers’ workload, which she described as an “absolute priority”. 

Speaking to TES just before the election, Ms Morgan said: “It was a really important piece of work to do and I am very proud to have done it. There are lots of little things - curriculum, data management, marking - that will not be solved overnight. But I want to make very clear that if I am back in office after 7 May, continuing to work on what people told us in the Workload Challenge is absolutely a priority for me.”