DOWNING Street has brushed aside criticism that Theresa May’s reshuffle was shambolic as it insisted her new ministerial team was more diverse and would "better reflect the country which it serves".

After a reshuffle of her Cabinet on Monday that lasted the best part of 10 hours, the Prime Minister was branded “pathetically weak” by one senior Tory MP after she unsuccessfully attempted to move Jeremy Hunt from the role of Health Secretary, and ended up expanding it to cover social care, and saw Justine Greening resign rather than move from her job as Education Secretary.

Asked if the reshuffle, as the SNP had suggested, had been “shambolic,” her spokesman replied: “What the reshuffle is about is getting in place the right team to tackle the challenges the country faces, whether that be on housing, improving school standards or on the NHS; she has the right team in place to do that.”

He insisted Mrs May believed Mr Hunt was the right person to take forward the NHS, describing him as a “long-serving, hard-working Health Secretary,” who had helped to deliver a health service rated the best in the world.

As the new-look Cabinet met for the first time one former Conservative minister observed: "She ended the year in not a bad place; to the point where she was making a virtue of her ability to walk through fires.

"The ability to come out the other side of a burning building, which is the way she looked at the end of last year, isn't enhanced by an ability to walk into a burning building deliberately."

During the second day of the reshuffle, involving the junior and middle ranks, the PM sacked a number of white, male ministers, including her colleague embroiled in a sex toy storm, while promoting a number of younger colleagues.

One of the more eye-catching appointments was Suella Fernandes - leader of the influential pro-Brexit European Research Group of backbenchers - to the department responsible for the UK's departure from the EU.

The Hampshire MP was elected in 2015 and is the daughter of immigrants from Kenya and Mauritius.

Downing Street said that as a result of the reshuffle there were now more women attending Cabinet, more female ministers and more members of the Government from a black and minority ethnic background than before.

Mrs May said: "This Government is about building a country fit for the future; one that truly works for everyone with a stronger economy and a fairer society.

"This reshuffle helps us do just that by bringing fresh talent into Government, boosting delivery in key policy areas like housing, health and social care, and ensuring the Government looks more like the country it serves.

"It also allows a new generation of gifted ministers to step up and make life better for people across the whole UK."

Casualties of the reshuffle included Mark Garnier, who lost his job as trade minister just weeks after being cleared by an investigation into allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards a female member of staff, including asking her to buy a sex toy. No 10 sources insisted the incident had nothing to do with his departure.

Others who were sacked included Scarborough and Whitby MP Robert Goodwill, Philip Dunne, who represents Ludlow, and John Hayes, the Lincolnshire MP.

Their Tory colleague Philip Davies, who sits on the Commons Women and Equalities Committee, said the reshuffle had created "a legitimate concern that some people may feel they have been hoofed out or not promoted simply because they are a white male".

But the PM’s spokesman said: "It is about getting the right Government in place to deliver for the British public. That also includes delivering a Government that better reflects the country which it serves."

Former Black Watch officer Rory Stewart, the Africa minister and onetime diplomat, has gone to the Ministry of Justice, a shift which prompted Tory grandee Sir Nicholas Soames to question why a "really knowledgeable" foreign policy expert was being moved to a domestic role.