Gillian Keegan will lose a third key policy adviser this summer after long-serving government adviser Dr Tim Leunig announced plans to join a think tank.
The former Department for Education chief scientific adviser, who has been back at the department part-time since January, announced this week he will join Public First.
It comes after Schools Week revealed that David Thomas, a senior adviser on schools policy, left the department last week to run a fledgling maths charity founded by a finance billionaire.
Patrick Spencer, who advised Keegan on social care, left the DfE at the end of April and is now director of The Jobs Foundation. It means three of four senior policy advisers to the education secretary have either left or announced plans to leave.
