Brexit: 'Lazarus-like' Amber Rudd urges Tory dissenters to pull back

The new work and pensions secretary Amber Rudd has urged Brexiteers to pull back from their assault on the prime minister.

After it was confirmed that her longtime ally Theresa May had invited her back into the cabinet, Ms Rudd insisted the prime minister's time in Downing Street is not over yet.

"I am confident the prime minister can survive," she said.

"I think she's demonstrated this week her complete commitment to making sure she serves the people she was elected to do so."

Asked what she would say to those handing in letters of no confidence in the PM's leadership, she said: "I would ask them to think again.

"This is not a time for changing our leader.

"This is a time for pulling together, for making sure that we remember who we are here to serve, who we are here to help.

"That's the whole of the country.

"And I worry sometimes that my colleagues are too concerned about the Westminster bubble, rather than keeping their eye on what our job is - to serve people."

Ms Rudd described herself as a "one nation Tory" and added that she is "delighted to have been given the honour and the responsibility" of heading up the department for work and pensions.

She has been out of cabinet since the end of April, when she quit as home secretary after inconsistencies in her account of her handling of the Windrush scandal.

Ms Rudd now faces dealing with the Universal Credit debacle and has already described it as having done "some fantastic things".

However, she went on to say: "I also recognise that there have been some issues with it, some problems with it.

"I see it very much as my job, my role, to make sure that I try to iron out those difficulties so it becomes a force wholly for good."

Asked if she had just accepted a "poisoned chalice" and had gone from being a "human shield" for Mrs May to her "secret weapon", Ms Rudd responded: "I never saw it like that."

Sky News' political correspondent Tom Rayner said Ms Rudd has risen "Lazarus-like" and pointed out that she is "not just someone who supported Remain - she was a vocal campaigner during the referendum but also just in the last few weeks she has said she thinks that a People's Vote would be preferable to no deal".

It comes as Michael Gove, Penny Mordaunt and Liam Fox all chose to stay in the cabinet.

The number of dissenters who have handed in letters of no confidence has reached 21, with 48 needed to trigger a leadership challenge.

Theresa May has hired her third Brexit secretary after Dominic Raab resigned in the wake of the draft Brexit deal.

Stephen Barclay has been promoted to the position from his ministerial role in the department of health.