However, on 28 May 1993 he was moved to the post of Under Secretary of State for Education, serving under Secretary of State John Patten and later Gillian Shephard. In this capacity he was generally known as the "schools minister" and occasionally as the "school discipline minister". He held this post until the Conservative government fell in May 1997. The official reason given for the move was that one of the other education ministers (Baroness Blatch) sat in the House of Lords and it was felt that an experienced House of Commons operator like Squire was needed to front government policy on schools.
