COMBATIVE Brexiteer Anne-Marie Trevelyan will on Thursday win a Cabinet promotion, as Boris Johnson catapults a legion of new Tory women MPs up the ranks.
The outspoken Armed Forces minister will be one of todays biggest winners when she is asked to join his top table.
She will be part of a major shake-up of the governments middle and lower orders in a boost to the number of women in power.
But the PMs reshuffle will be less brutal than anticipated, with fewer than five Cabinet ministers now expected to be axed.
The shake-up will create a 50/50 gender split among Parliamentary Under Secretaries of State the most junior rank of ministers.
Rising stars Suella Braverman and Gillian Keegan will also be handed mid-ranking roles.
And parliamentary aides, the lowest, will eventually be 60 per cent female by the summer.
Elsewhere, there will be promotions for diligent worker bees Alok Sharma, currently International Development Secretary, and Oliver Dowden, who will also enter the Cabinet for the first time.
COX OUT?
But Mr Johnson faces the tough task of having to fire loyal supporter Geoffrey Cox against his will if he wants him out of the Cabinet on Thursday.
Contrary to reports he was ready to return to the bar where he earned a fortune as a QC, it has emerged that Mr Cox wants to stay on as Attorney General.
When asked by the PMs aides, Mr Cox told them he wants to see through the tricky EU trade deal negotiation this year.
As one of his earliest Cabinet backers for his Tory leadership bid, the prominent barrister spoke at the launch of Mr Johnsons campaign launch in the summer.
However, he was slapped down by the PMs spokesman today for saying he supported a Bill of Rights to replace the Human Rights Act.
Friends of Defence Secretary Ben Wallace say he has been assured his job is safe, despite an acidic briefing against him from some in No10.
And the shuffle may mark a defeat for the PMs senior aide Dominic Cummings, whose push for ministry mergers and the sackings of Mr Wallace and Chancellor Sajid Javid seems to have been rebuffed.
Instead of the major government overhaul that he was in favour of, only the Department for International Development is expected to become part of the Foreign Office.
One minister said: He is going to become a lot less powerful when we all see how the poison he poured into the PMs ear didnt work.
Ahead of the PMs first reshuffle last night, a No10 source said: The Prime Minister wants this reshuffle to set the foundations for Government now and in the future.
He wants to promote a generation of talent that will be promoted further in the coming years. He will reward those MPs who have worked hard to deliver on this Governments priorities to level up the whole country and deliver the change people voted for last year.
