Norman, who is the MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire, entered Parliament in 2010, and has served on the Treasury select committee and as chair of the all-party parliamentary group on employee ownership.

In his new role Norman will be responsible for strategic oversight of the UK tax system including direct, indirect, business, property and personal taxation and take overall responsibility for the finance bill.

As news of his appointment broke, Norman tweeted: ‘Absolutely delighted to have been appointed Financial Secretary and Paymaster General @hmtreasury. All the more so since it’s 237 years and two months since Edmund Burke was made Paymaster General’.

His predecessor, Mel Stride, who was closely involved with the launch of HMRC’s flagship Making Tax Digital project, has become leader of the House of Commons, after Leadsom quit the Cabinet citing her inability to support prime minister Theresa May’s proposed Brexit Withdrawal Bill.

Stride will now be responsible for helping to guide any future Brexit bill through the Commons and for organising the parliamentary schedule. He will also be overseeing restoration and renovation of the building, a major project estimated at around £3bn, which will see MPs decamping to alternative premises while works take place.

Before entering politics, Norman was a director at Barclays, researched and taught philosophy at University College London, and ran a charitable project in communist Eastern Europe. He has also written a number of books, including noted biographies of the political thinkers Edmund Burke and Michael Oakeshott.