Britain’s new Prime Minister, Theresa May, has revealed that her Christian faith is a significant part of who she is and guides and directs all of her decisions.
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May on Thursday finalised the details of the cabinet.
But the decision to name Johnson, the eccentric former London mayor, to the high-profile post of representing Britain to the rest of the world has already proved controversial. She said it would be her mission to “build a better Britain”.
“Ultimately, however, it is stability that business want to see and that is what we want the new Prime Minister and her team to provide in the first instance before setting about meeting all of the challenges ahead”.
She removed long-serving finance minister George Osborne and Brexit-campaigning justice secretary Michael Gove – and stunned commentators by giving Johnson the diplomatic brief.
“We will make Britain a country that works not for a privileged few, but for every one of us”, she added.
Seen as a safe pair of hands who campaigned for Britain to remain in the EU, May swept to power promising a “bold new positive role” for Britain outside the bloc.
The appointment of Johnson, known for making colorful and often undiplomatic remarks, was met with surprise around the world.
In April, he suggested that US President Barack Obama had an “ancestral dislike” of Britain because he is part-Kenyan.
In 2002, in a regular column for The Telegraph – a newspaper which urged its readers to vote for a Brexit – Johnson called black people “picaninnies” and referred to the people of Congo as bloodthirsty “tribal warriors” with “watermelon smiles”.
On his first day in the job Thursday, Johnson struck a sober tone.
He also dismissed comments by French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault that he had “lied a lot” during the Brexit campaign, saying he had received a “charming letter” from his new French counterpart.
He said that to secure a good deal Britain’s first port of call should be Berlin, not Brussels – where vehicle exporters like Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen would not be willing to risk running into trade tariff in their exports to the UK.
Well she certainly has done that, wasting no time in announcing the most senior jobs in her cabinet, the first appointment only an hour or so after she walked in. May has given him the chance to live up to his potential or to fail spectacularly. “There may be some mishaps”.
“But if Boris Johnson can realize his potential… he will send that shot of adrenaline through the Foreign Office, through our diplomacy, that is so necessary right now”, Meyer told Sky News.
Johnson said he was “very humbled, very proud to be offered this chance”.
“He’s extremely clever”, Mount said.
Conservative lawmaker David Davis will take the newly formed job of minister in charge of negotiations with the European Union that will set up the conditions for leaving.
Daniela Schwarzer of the German Marshall Fund think tank said Merkel would play a “decisive” role in the upcoming negotiations once Britain has triggered Article 50 to exit the bloc.
“Similar deals would be reached with other key European Union nations”.
“However, the composition of the new cabinet shows that the focus is less on the future of the country but more about satisfying the internal cohesion of the Tory Party”, he added.
“Free access to the common market means, among other things, accepting other fundamental freedoms such as the freedom of movement”, said Juergen Hardt.
British Home Secretary Theresa May became prime minister Wednesday after an audience with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.
Three weeks after the shock vote for “Brexit”, May’s government faces the complex task of extricating Britain from the 28-nation European Union while trying to protect the economy from feared disruption to confidence, trade and investment.
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“We are not a party political organisation but it is in the interests of the whole country, including our members, that the Government can now get on and function properly”.
