Meet the Ministers: Who has the CM chosen to form his CoMin?

As Chris Thomas names his members, we look at who he's chosen and why

Following his election to chief minister on Tuesday (13 October), the first big decision facing Douglas Central MHK Chris Thomas is to choose his Council of Ministers (CoMin).

They'll be his closest allies during his leadership, and will act as the heads of the government departments.

All the ministers will also be bound by what's known as 'collective responsibility' - meaning they'll all have to vote together on policies agreed on by CoMin.

In a departure from his predecessor, who actually created another position during his tenure, Mr Thomas seems to have streamlined the group for the moment by taking on the role of Cabinet Minister himself.

He's also dropped the newly-created position of Minister Without Portfolio, creating an elite group of eight members.

So who has Mr Thomas chosen to help him lead his government?

Jane Poole-Wilson - Justice and Home Affairs

In a move that hasn't come as a surprise to many, the Middle MHK has retained her position as Justice and Home Affairs Minister.

She was one of the few members of the previous CoMin who stayed in the same role for the entirety of the previous administration.

She's a non-practicing solicitor, and was an MLC before first being elected to the House of Keys in 2021.

The biggest reason her appointment isn't a surprise though, is the looming MONEYVAL evaluation. 

MONEYVAL will judge the Island's armoury of measures in place to combat crime such as money laundering, terrorist and proliferation financing, drug trafficking and cyber fraud - against the global standards promoted by the Financial Action Task Force.

If it finds the Island falls below those standards, it will massively damage our international reputation and also restrict our participation in the global market.

In short, it's a really big deal.

A lot of the work to make sure we don't fail that assessment has been led by Mrs Poole-Wilson, so it makes sense to have consistency there, at least in the short term.

Claire Christian - Health and Social Care

Ms Christian, who's one of Douglas South's representatives, is the other member to keep their role from the previous administration.

Before first being elected as an MHK in a by-election in 2020, Ms Christian was a business owner and fashion designer, and has long positioned herself as a 'champion' of Manx business.

Much of her early political career was spent as a vocal backbencher, even forming a so-called 'rebel alliance' with Mr Thomas and former Onchan MHK Julie Edge.

However, after the resignation of Lawrie Hooper, she accepted Alfred Cannan's invitation to be his health minister, in November 2024.

Since then, she's overseen a number of changes within the health service - namely eliminating dental waiting lists, overseeing a rapid review into bed capacity issues at Noble's Hospital and starting plans to have an 'all-age pathway' for adult autism and ADHD diagnosis by 2029.

Ms Christian made it clear after being re-elected last month that she wanted to stay on as health minister, and given their previous political coalition, it's unsurprising to see Mr Thomas has listened to her request.

But, with constant questions about the quality of healthcare on the Island and the ever-present conversations about how much it costs, and even a decision to be made about whether the Manx Care model is working at all, is continuity what the department needs, or could it have benefitted from a fresh pair of eyes?

Jason Moorhouse - Infrastructure

The Arbory, Castletown and Malew MHK, who's now one of the most experienced members of the House as he starts his third term, is taking on the role that's often described as 'the poison chalice' of government.

Despite representing the constituency since 2016, this is his first time taking on a ministerial position.

The London School of Economics graduate and former teacher has made it his business to ask questions throughout his political career - in fact, he asked around 900 in the House of Keys and Tynwald in the past five years, which was almost half of all the questions asked by all the members combined.

But that seemed to be his main political role, having not served in even a departmental role since 2021.

He was a member of a number of select committees during the past administration, but some questioned whether he was doing enough, including his former constituency colleague, who even went as far as accusing him of taking part in 'parasite politics'.

However, Mr Moorhouse does seem to have taken some of that criticism on board by accepting a role in CoMin. 

And while House of Keys and Tynwald sittings may now be shorter without his questions, it might be fair to say that the CoMin meetings won't be.

Sarah Maltby - Education, Sport and Culture

In what's a full house for Douglas South, its second MHK, Mrs Maltby, is also joining the Council of Ministers.

This is the first time the Manx Labour Party member has been given a ministerial position, having first been elected in 2021.

Before entering politics, Mrs Maltby was a carer and also a Senior Education Support Officer, where she worked with young people with complex additional educational and medical needs.

She was also a departmental member for DESC from 2024-26, and therefore has a working knowledge of the department.

It's that experience that has probably helped guide Mr Thomas when making his decision about who to fill this particular role.

Robert Cowell - Enterprise

Mr Cowell, one of Ramsey's representatives, is the first of the newly-elected MHKs to be called up to CoMin.

He was Mr Thomas' proposer during the chief minister election, so it's not much of a surprise that he features in the line up.

Mr Cowell was previously a Ramsey Town Commissioner, even serving as chair, and so he has understanding of how government works at a local level at least.

He also owns a hospitality business in the town, and has done since 2012.

Government describes Enterprise as being responsible for economic development and the creation of an environment where local entrepreneurship is supported and thriving and more new businesses are choosing to call the Isle of Man home.

With that in mind, putting a business owner in that role, who'd presumably be aware of some of the challenges facing businesses on the Island, makes sense.

Rachel Glover - Environment, Food and Agriculture

Dr Glover was newly elected as one of Onchan's MHKs last month.

She's probably most well known on the Island for her work setting up our COVID testing lab in March 2020, which meant Manx residents could get same-day results, on-Island.

She's a scientist and runs her own environmental biotech company here, which she has already confirmed she'll be taking a step back from now she's been elected.

Before setting up that business though, Dr Glover spent a lengthy period of time working for the UK Government in the Food and Environment Research Agency as part of DEFRA.

She's also served as a trustee of the Manx Wildlife Trust since 2019.

And in her manifesto, Dr Glover criticised DEFA's current Food Security Plan, saying it's based on numbers the department admits it doesn't have.

She wanted three big questions to be answered: how much of our own food do we actually produce, how much do we have to hand if the boats stop, and how resilient are our arable crops to the effects of climate change? 

She committed to pushing for a genuine self-sufficiency figure and a days-of-supply figure, published every year, so residents can see whether we have more food security, or less.

All of those are things she should be able to achieve now she's in charge of the department.

Michael Crowe - Treasury

In what is both a surprise and not much of a surprise, newly-elected Rushen member Michael Crowe has been given the role of Treasury Minister.

Now, it's a surprise because it's usually thought of as the second most senior position, behind the chief minister, so giving it to a newcomer is quite a bold move from Mr Thomas.

However, when you look at Mr Crowe's credentials, you can absolutely understand his thinking.

First and foremost is that his career to date has been spent as an accountant, so you hope he'd be good with numbers.

But also, he comes from Manx political stock.

His mum is former MHK and MLC Pam Crowe, who was Rushen's representative between 1997 and 2003, before she was elected to the Legislative Council, a position she held for five years.

As a result, you'd expect him to have at least a basic knowledge of the inner workings of the Island's political system, and a good sounding board for advice if not.

What do these appointments say about the direction the chief minister wants to go in?

Well, Mr Thomas does seem to have taken  a departure from tradition, and in many cases has assigned people to departments that they actually have direct experience in.

Previously, it's not been the done thing, because it can mean there's a stronger potential for a conflict of interests - for example despite having a practicing GP and a practicing nurse in his Council of Ministers, Alfred Cannan didn't put either of them in charge of Health and Social Care.

But the other side of that coin is that you then don't benefit from the experience of having someone who's been right there at the coal face, and probably has a better understanding of some of things that are directly hindering potential progress in those departments.

However, the results of September's General Election has put new MHKs in almost two thirds of the seats in the House, and so there was not only pressure on the new chief minister to include a mix of newly-elected members to reflect the demand for change from the public, but actually almost a need as well.

And while there are new faces among his CoMin, immediate social media reaction would suggest some feel there aren't enough to properly reflect the public's very clear mandate for wanting things to be different.

There's also been talk of why some other high profile names aren't included in the line up - namely his chief minister election opponent, Arbory, Castletown and Malew MHK Kirrie Jenkins, Onchan member Rob Callister, who'd also initially declared his interest in putting his hat in the ring for the top job, and the former chief himself, Ayre and Michael's Alfred Cannan.

Although, it's worth bearing in mind that just because a chief minister asks someone to take on a role, it doesn't mean they have to say yes.

It also doesn't mean there aren't other important roles that are needed - the chair of Manx Utilities and chair of the Planning Committee are just two which still need to be assigned, and who's to say this is the exhaustive list of ministerial positions and we won't see more throughout Mr Thomas' tenure?

Only time will tell of course, but one thing's for sure, and that's that there are a lot of eyes on the group the new chief minister has chosen, and an even higher expectation on them to start driving the change people seem so desperate for.