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Johnson returns to limelight as reshuffle reveals the Brexit pack

The response to the decision by new UK Prime Minister Theresa May to appoint Johnson Foreign Secretary has been largely one of shock, even among the former London Mayor’s supporters.

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May put Johnson in the post to get him out of the country as much as possible, and in charge of as little substantive work as possible.

New British Prime Minister Theresa May is clearing rivals from government as she assembles her new Cabinet team.

Germany’s finance minister is signaling a willingness to forget past statements by Boris Johnson, Britain’s new foreign secretary.

France’s foreign minister has branded his British counterpart, incoming Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, a liar.

“At this incredibly important time that will determine Britain’s economic and cultural relations with Europe, it is extraordinary that the new Prime Minister has chosen someone whose career is built on making jokes”.

Lew added said he has been “encouraged that there have been very pragmatic views expressed” in his meetings in Europe.

Mrs May, who supported a Remain vote in the European Union referendum, has repeatedly insisted that “Brexit is Brexit” and that there can be no retreat from the result of the 23 June referendum.

George W. Bush. In the Spectator in 2003, Johnson described the president as “a cross-eyed Texan warmonger, unelected, inarticulate, who [epitomizes] the arrogance of American foreign policy”.

He was also accused of closing all of London’s ticket offices when he had promised they would be manned, seeing transport fares increase when he said they would reduce and rough sleeping double when he had promised to solve it, during his tenure as London Mayor.

The pair were then contemporaries at Oxford University and both members of the Bullingdon Club – an elite, all-male dining society known for its rowdy behaviour.

After leaving the London mayoralty in May he spearheaded the Leave campaign.

“The lead and the tone will be set by the Prime Minister”.

The vote to quit the European Union has had a chilling effect on the British economy but there will be no emergency budget, the new Chancellor said.

Before the 2010 election, he had been due to become chief secretary to the Treasury, the number two job in the department, but that was scotched when the Conservatives failed to win an outright majority.

Asked by a reporter whether he would apologize to U.S. President Barack Obama for controversially saying the “part-Kenyan” president was biased against Britain because of “an ancestral dislike of the British empire”, Johnson said: “The United States of America will be in the front of the queue”.

And since last month’s vote, for which he campaigned vigorously, Mr Johnson had suffered widespread criticism and ridicule for failing to present a clear Brexit plan and swiftly dropping out of the leadership race.

May is something of an unknown quantity internationally, but European Council president Donald Tusk said he looked forward to a “fruitful working relationship” with her.

Amber Rudd, the secretary of state for energy and climate change, was also appointed as home secretary.

She then entered Number 10 and began a reshuffle which started with Osborne being told he would not be a part of the new government and was being replaced by former Secretary of State Philip Hammond.

Before the referendum, May had campaigned for Britain to remain in the European Union, albeit in a low-key fashion.

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She named former Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond as the country’s Chancellor of the Exchequer this evening, in her first appointment after taking office. The 54-year-old has previously held a string of senior positions in government.

Newly appointed Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson waves as he leaves 10 Downing Street in central London