Lib Dems and Paxman victim are big losers in Cameron’s reshuffle

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg wielded the knife as David Cameron moved to promote more women and northern MPs to his Conservative team.

With just a year to go before the crucial referendum on independence north of the border, Mr Moore’s Cabinet post was handed to Lib Dem chief whip Alistair Carmichael. Mr Clegg is believed to want a more attacking approach against Scottish first minister Alec Salmond.

In one of the biggest shocks so far, Mr Browne - on the right of the party and touted by some as a future leader - was also replaced by transport minister Norman Baker.

Exchanging letters with Mr Browne, Mr Clegg said it was “always very difficult to move colleagues out of government”.

“But as you know, I have always been keen that we provide the opportunity for as many in our ranks as possible to contribute their skills to ministerial office during this Parliament so that, just as the Government has benefited from your contribution over the past three years, it can also gain from those of other colleagues in the remaining years of this Parliament,” he wrote.

In his response, Mr Browne insisted he remained “supportive of the Government”.

“I hope the Government will continue to strive to be reforming and innovative and avoid the danger of lapsing into transactional trade-offs and deferred decision making,” he added.

Mr Moore told the BBC he was “disappointed” to be leaving office but “very pleased at what I have been able to achieve in the last couple of years”.

Meanwhile, Mr Cameron has avoided changes to his Cabinet - but handed promotions to women MPs including Esther McVey and Nicky Morgan.

Ms McVey has been pushed up the ranks at the Department for Work and Pensions to become employment minister, while Ms Morgan goes from assistant whip to Economic Secretary to the Treasury.

Allies of Chancellor George Osborne have fared well, with Sajid Javid made Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Matthew Hancock becoming skills and enterprise minister, and Greg Clark installed as Tory deputy chief whip.

Mr Clark has been moved from the Treasury to take on responsibilities for cities and constitutional reform at the Cabinet Office, and Andrew Robathan made Northern Ireland minister replacing Mike Penning - who takes on duties at the Department for Work and Pensions.

There was bad news for some long-serving Tories, with Mark Hoban ousted as employment minister after a 10-year spell on the party’s front bench.

Another Tory, Mark Prisk, posted: “Asked to step aside from Housing for a younger generation. Disappointing but it’s been a great eleven years on front bench.”

Richard Benyon, an early supporter of Mr Cameron’s Tory leadership bid in 2005, confirmed that he had stepped down as environment minister.

“On back benches! 3 and half really fun years with much achieved. Really appreciate time working with outstanding Ministers and Officials,” he wrote on Twitter.

Labour leader Ed Miliband is also preparing to make changes to his top team.

Hugh Robertson, who has held the sports brief for the Tories since 2005 and earned praise for his work on the Olympics, is rewarded by being made minister at the Foreign Office.

Camborne MP George Eustice - Mr Cameron’s former press secretary and a prominent EU rebel - has been appointed environment minister.

Alistair Burt, who leaves his job as Foreign Office minister, posted on Twitter: “Standing down today. The last 3 1/2 years have been a pleasure working on an extraordinary portfolio with talented people. Thank you all!”

David Heath was sacked from his post at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with Lib Dem MP Dan Rogerson appointed to a junior ministerial job in the department.

Stephen Williams, the Lib Dems’ former backbench Treasury spokesman, has been given a post in the Department of Communities and Local Government.

Tory Jane Ellison has been promoted from the backbenches to become a junior minister in the Department of Health, No 10 said.

Tory Anna Soubry has been moved sideways from her junior ministerial role in the Department of Health to the Ministry of Defence.

Earlier this year the former television presenter said she supsected Mr Cameron gave her the job of public health minister because she is a woman and it was seen as a ‘’soft bloody girly option”.

But she told Total Politics: “’It’s bloody well not, it’s one of the most important jobs.”

Elsewhere in Westminster, Ed Miliband dramatically reshaped his shadow cabinet ready for the general election, demoting Blairites and installing women in key posts.

The Labour leader defied calls for Andy Burnham to be ousted from the health brief, and also kept Ed Balls as shadow chancellor.

But he ruthlessly shifted Liam Byrne from work and pensions to be replaced by Leeds MP Rachel Reeves, leaving him responsible for higher education and with no seat at the top table.

Shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy will oversee international development policy, with Vernon Coaker taking over his old patch, and Stephen Twigg has been ejected from education in favour of TV historian Tristram Hunt.

Maria Eagle, a strong supporter of the controversial HS2 high-speed rail project, is being switched to shadow environment secretary - raising the prospect that the party’s attitude to the scheme could be about to change.

Michael Dugher, a former spokesman for Gordon Brown, has been promoted to shadow Cabinet Office minister. And Mr Brown’s former adviser Spencer Livermore is being drafted in to manage the general election campaign.

Labour sources said 44% of the shadow cabinet were now women, and 31% were from the 2010 Commons intake.

Meanwhile, Chloe Smith played down the significance of a humiliating television interview in her decision to stand down as a Cabinet Office Minister.

She said the experience and subsequent media speculation over her ministerial future simply highlighted a Westminster village obsession not shared by ordinary people.

She told the BBC Radio 4’s World at One: “I have always loved my constituency work and what struck me about that, is that I think perhaps the Westminster bubble rather obsesses with late-night interviews.

“Lots of people have many better things to do with their time and I do too.”

Ms Smith, who was only elected to the Commons in 2009 at the age of just 27 and was quickly promoted to the ministerial ranks, said on resigning that she wanted the chance to “develop other ways of giving public service, both inside and outside Parliament”.

As Economic Secretary to the Treasury she suffered a verbal mauling at the hands of Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman over a fuel duty freeze.

The interview led to Chancellor George Osborne being branded an ‘’arrogant coward’’ after sending her into the TV studios to defend his decision to delay the 3p hike in fuel duty.

In her resignation letter to the Prime Minister she said she now wanted “to be able to spend more time serving my constituents”.

“I was only 27 when I was lucky enough to be elected as an MP, and of my four years in Parliament so far, I have spent three as a minister.

“I would welcome the opportunity to develop other ways of giving public service, both inside and outside Parliament, while continuing to work hard for my constituents.”

She said she would also take up Mr Cameron’s “challenge” to find better ways to engage with young voters.

Mr Cameron applauded her “positive impact in the departments you have served” and said he looked forward to receiving her recommendations on encouraging young people to vote.

“As you know from our previous conversations, this is a topic I take seriously and believe that there is scope for action,” he told her.