BRAINTREE’S MP has warned the Prime Minister he wants to retain his top job in the Foreign Office amid speculation over an imminent Cabinet reshuffle.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has been tipped in some reports as a contender to replace Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, but he made clear his desire to remain in his current role during a relaxed interview at the Aspen Security Forum in the US.

Mr Cleverly said he wanted to “stay put” in the job, as he joked he was speaking directly to the Prime Minister from across the Atlantic.

“I adore being Foreign Secretary. I think that my observation is that you become better at the job the more you do it, the more relationships you are able to build,” he said.

The Braintree MP continued: “If anyone in the UK is watching, listening, particularly you Prime Minister, I very much want to stay put. I don’t know if His Majesty watches the Aspen conference, but I very much want to stay put.

“It is a job I love… I have been a minister in our foreign department now since the February of 2020, this is the job I know and the job I like to think I am good at and the job I adore.”

The Tory MP was also briefly Education Secretary between July and September 2022.

Mr Cleverly has been in his current job since last September, making him one of the most senior figures in Rishi Sunak’s Cabinet.

The Prime Minister is reportedly mulling over a reshuffle this week or at the end of summer, as the Conservatives brace for the possibility of three by-election defeats on Thursday.