Nusrat Ghani appears to have lost her role as UK maritime minister in a cabinet reshuffle on Thursday.
Ghani, who has been in the post since January 2018, tweeted that it had been a "huge privilege" to have been in the role and said much had been achieved in the past two years.
"Thanks to the great team in the Dept [of Transport] and now I get to spend more time with family and constituents," she said in the tweet on Thursday morning.
It remains unclear whether Ghani has been sacked or has left voluntarily.
Sajid Javid delivered a shock resignation from his position as UK Chancellor of the Exchequer on Thursday.
Ghani's departure as minister has not yet been confirmed officially by the Prime Minister's office, 10 Downing Street.
The Guardian reports that Ghani had been tipped as the new minister for the UK's HS2 high-speed rail project, a post that Boris Johnson pledged to create on Tuesday.
Achievements in the role
Ghani had been instrumental in working on the UK's Maritime 2050 strategy, the nation's 30-year vision for its maritime industry.
In July last year, she also launched the Clean Maritime Plan, the UK’s strategy to reach zero-emission shipping and to achieve "clean" growth for the maritime sector.
She was also a supporter of Maritime UK's Women In Maritime programme, which promotes gender diversity in the industry.
Ben Murray, director of Maritime UK, the promotional body for the sector, told TradeWinds that his organisation "pays tribute to the tremendous energy, determination and personal warmth shown by Nus Ghani over the past two years".
"The reaction to her leaving the post from all parts of the sector shows how highly she was regarded as a maritime minister that gets things done, and a genuinely nice person," Murray commented.
"Maritime is enjoying heightened national profile as we start our journey outside the EU and this is in no small part down to the efforts of Nus, both with the strong civil service team at DfT [the Department for Transport] and by acting as the sector's champion across Whitehall."
Her departure has been met with dismay from UK maritime organisations in tweeted replies to Ghani's announcement, some of which are shown below.
