Yes minister, this week it's your turn to be Business Secretary

EIGHT and a half months is roughly the life expectancy of a beetle or some longer-lived butterflies.

- Daniel O'Boyle

It's also the average term of the last five Business Secretaries.

Andrea Leadsom was in the role for just six-and-a-half months before being removed in Boris Johnson's February 2020 reshuffle. Alok Sharma's run was just under a year before he left to be president of COP26.

Kwasi Kwarteng was a relative stalwart with 20 months in the post. When he was promoted to Chancellor, Jacob Rees-Mogg became Business Secretary. Both were gone within 50 days as the mini-Budget fiasco toppled the Truss government.

Grant Shapps then enjoyed a three-and-a-half month tenure before Rishi Sunak's decision this week to merge the business and trade department. That brings to Kemi Badenoch: the sixth Business Secretary in three years.

Does it matter for business that nobody can hold down such a key position for long?

"It isn't a positive thing," says Roger Barker, director of policy and corporate governance at the Institute of Directors. "Business really needs long-term thinking. It is in need of a long-term strategic approach that extends beyond the political and electoral cycle."

For some sectors - particularly those heavily involved in industrial production like automotives - a change in who is in charge of the UK industrial strategy can mean concrete policy changes.