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He clashed bitterly with the then first secretary Alun Michael in 2000 over procedures surrounding a no-confidence vote in Mr Michael's handling of European funding.

Trump fired his first secretary of state, former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, via tweet a little more than a year into his tenure.

And just as Trump’s first secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, had no experience in the world of public schools, so McMahon’s experience running World Wrestling Entertainment has rendered her, in her words, an “outsider” in the field of education.

Mr Michael, whose post was known as first secretary at the time, resigned before it could take place.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour, the former first secretary said: "I would just observe the seats that we have lost in the past few days - we lost to parties to the left of us."