Mrs Sandher-Jones pictured speaking to personnel during a visit to British Forces Cyprus in October 2025 (Picture: BFBS) — Mrs Sandher-Jones spoke to personnel during a visit to British Forces Cyprus in October 2025 (Picture: BFBS)

Tri-Service

Louise Sandher-Jones and Calvin Bailey land new roles in Ministry of Defence reshuffle

15th June 2026 at 2:20pm

Louise Sandher-Jones has been promoted to Armed Forces Minister, and Calvin Bailey has been appointed as Veterans and People Minister in a defence posts reshuffle.

Mrs Sandher-Jones, who served as an Army Intelligence Officer and deployed on operations to Afghanistan, will be in charge of legislation, including the Armed Forces Bill, support for Ukraine, and autonomy and drones, such as the Drone Centre of Excellence, in her role.

Mr Bailey, who served for more than 20 years in the Royal Air Force, achieving the rank of wing commander, was deployed on Operation Pitting in Afghanistan after the country was taken over by the Taliban and was on the Defence Select Committee.

Curbing the manosphere and the cadets

The manosphere has become widely associated with anti-feminist views, aggressive definitions of masculinity and extreme misogyny

In her previous role as veterans and people minister, Mrs Sandher-Jones highlighted the important values that the cadet force can instil in young people, amid the rise of the online manosphere communities in May.

"What makes a good leader isn't somebody who can just sound off on social media.

"It's so important we teach these young people these values so when they can see someone on social media in the manosphere just talking nonsense, they can recognise it for the grift that is," she said.

The month before, Chief of the General Staff General Sir Roly Walker told a parliamentary committee that the rise of manosphere rhetoric online had made it harder to stop sexual harassment and misogyny in the military.

Her focus on cadets was followed by the upcoming Cadet Action Plan, which will have three key aims to help boost the force by the end of the decade.

The government has pledged to invest £70 million into the cadet force

She set out the strategy's broad objectives to improve membership by 30% by 2030 earlier this month.

The plan aims to focus on the recruitment and support of adult volunteers, and ensure that the force has the correct assistance and infrastructure it needs, as well as raise awareness of the opportunities in the cadets to more young people.

"Cadets, particularly for those who are at risk of not going on to further education, employment or training, provides a fantastic opportunity for young people to have a go at something that isn't school and to gain confidence to find out what it is that they want to do," she said.

Op Pitting and Covid-19

Soldiers on the ground during Op Pitting, which was the operation to evacuate British nationals and Afghans from Afghanistan following the 2021 Taliban offensive (Picture: MOD)

Mr Bailey, who was elected to Parliament in July 2024, helped with humanitarian efforts and operations in war zones during his time in the RAF.

His service was rewarded with an MBE for his work on the relief operations in Haiti and the Philippines.

Alongside his relief work, the former member of the RAF controlled the country's biggest deployed Air Wing in the Covid-19 pandemic.

He led the evacuation of more than 10,000 people from Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, during Op Pitting and chose to increase the number of people allowed on evacuation flights.

Prior to entering politics, he studied engineering at the University of Exeter and war studies at King's College London.