Lloyd was promoted to Foreign Secretary in December 1955, in place of Harold Macmillan who was seen as too strong and independent a figure for Eden's tastes. In his early days at the Foreign Office Lloyd was known to irritate his subordinates with bad puns, such as "Good for Nutting" and "You're a deb, Sir Gladwyn Jebb". The Foreign Office mandarin Sir Evelyn Shuckburgh complained in his diary (9 December 1955) that they were to "be landed with that bloody Selwyn Lloyd".