Defence Secretary Ben Wallace could leave the Cabinet in a reshuffle

DEFENCE Secretary Ben Wallace could leave the Cabinet in a reshuffle, Tory insiders reckon.

The hugely popular minister is weighing up his future after not getting the Nato Secretary General job.

He is considering whether or not to run again as an MP or step down at the next election.

If he does go, James Cleverly is the frontrunner to replace him – freeing up the plum job of Foreign Secretary for someone else.

Rishi Sunak is considering switching up his top team as he prepares for a gruelling general election next year.

No10 wants ministers to have time to bed in before they have to hit the campaign trail.

The PM is expected to focus his reshuffle on the mid-ranking ministerial level.

A host of female rising stars – including key Rishi allies Claire Coutinho and Laura Trott – are expected to get promotions.

But No10 is also believed to be drawing up more radical plans to shuffle the ministerial deck in case Mr Sunak decides to do a bolder overhaul ahead of the next election.

Mr Wallace, a former Army officer, is the most popular member of the Cabinet with party activists, regularly topping polls.

He has won global plaudits for his leadership on Ukraine and Afghanistan and considered running for leadership after Boris Johnson quit as PM.

His seat of Wyre and Preston North is destroyed in a shake-up of constituency boundaries which kick in at the next election.

Mr Wallace has been cleared by party bosses to run in another seat if he wants to – a process known as being displaced.

A spokeswoman for Mr Wallace said “Ben Wallace is considering a number of options for the next general election, this includes going through the party’s process for displaced MPs.”