It comes after the shock resignations of Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid.

Downing Street confirmed that Michelle Donelan will replace Zahawi as Education Secretary.

READ MORE: 'The whole rotten lot need to go': Nicola Sturgeon reacts to Sunak and Javid resignations

A Whitehall source said Steve Barclay will replace Javid as Health Secretary.

Boris Johnson told Sajid Javid he was “sorry” to receive his resignation letter as health secretary and suggested his Government would “continue to deliver” plans for the NHS.

In a brief letter, the Prime Minister wrote: “Dear Saj, Thank you for your letter this evening tendering your resignation. I was very sorry to receive it.

“You have served this Government, and the people of the United Kingdom, with distinction.”

Johnson noted Javid’s work to tackle Covid backlogs and other plans for the health service, and vowed that “the Government will continue to deliver on them”.

“You will be greatly missed, and I look forward to your contribution from the backbenches,” he concluded.

Sunak said “the public rightly expect government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously”, adding: “I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I am resigning.”

Javid said the British people “expect integrity from their government” but voters now believed Mr Johnson’s administration was neither competent nor “acting in the national interest”.

The Prime Minister’s authority had already been damaged by a confidence vote which saw 41% of his own MPs withdraw their support.

READ MORE: Johnson appoints Steve Barclay as Health Secretary amid scramble to replace ministers

The loss of crunch by-elections in Tiverton and Honiton and Wakefield in June triggered the resignation of party chairman Oliver Dowden, while there is still lingering anger over coronavirus lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street.

The twin resignations of Javid and Sunak mean Johnson’s position is now perilous, but Cabinet ministers including Dominic Raab, Liz Truss, Michael Gove, Therese Coffey and Ben Wallace indicated they would be staying in the Government.

The Prime Minister was battling to remain in No 10 as his handling of the row over scandal-hit former deputy chief whip Chris Pincher became the latest issue to raise questions over his judgment.

Who is Nadhim Zahawi?

Born in Iraq to a Kurdish family, Zahawi came to the UK as a nine-year-old when his parents fled the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Believed to be one of the richest politicians in the House of Commons, he helped found polling company YouGov after studying chemical engineering at University College London.

He has often said that his own personal backstory has deeply influenced his view of Britain and he recently spoke of the debt he owed poet Philip Larkin as he improved his English as a teenager.

Seen as a “safe pair of hands”, he came to the Education Secretary role following the sacking of Gavin Williamson, who had become deeply unpopular with the public over the exams fiasco during the Covid-19 pandemic.

His tenure in the role has not been without difficulty and in recent weeks he had been attempting to see off potential strike action by teachers, which he has labelled “unforgivable” months after children returned to school following the disruption of the pandemic.

Zahawi became a junior education minister under Theresa May, but his loyalty to Boris Johnson has never seriously wavered.

A Stratford-on-Avon MP since 2010, Zahawi has often made much of his most famous constituent – William Shakespeare.

On Tuesday night, in taking the Chancellor role, he had decided to try to save Johnson from a comedy of erro