Governments around the globe have reacted to Boris Johnson’s appointment as United Kingdom foreign secretary.
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Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision to give Mr Johnson the top job has been met with dismay across the globe. Its remit has been watered down by other areas of government; for example the Department for International Development, which became its own ministry in 1997, is in charge of international aid.
After six years as Cameron’s interior minister, May was viewed as a safe pair of hands to replace him, but began with a cull of some of her former cabinet colleagues.
With his gaffes, stunts and outrageous comments, Mr Johnson has made himself an easy target for mockery.
European Council president Donald Tusk said he looked forward to a “fruitful working relationship”.
A lot of Johnson’s most controversial comments have been made in his column for the Daily Telegraph, the UK’s leading right-wing broadsheet.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was ready for “constructive dialogue” with Britain’s new premier, while White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that U.S. officials who had worked with May “found her to be quite effective”.
But he said that “it’s also important to point out that the quicker we succeed in creating clarity, the better it is to limit possible risks”.
The hitherto dominant “Notting Hill set” comprising Tories such as David Cameron, George Osborne and Michael Gove did not find a place in the new dispensation, as May sacked chancellor Osborne and justice secretary Gove.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault eschewed the customary diplomatic niceties to ask how a man who he said had told lies as leader of the Leave campaign in last month’s British referendum over whether to stay or leave the European Union could be a credible interlocutor.
The job has been handed to David Davis who has previously served as a Europe Minister. May, who only has a wafer-thin majority of 12, knows that at least 100 of her MPs want Article 50 triggered as soon as possible.
Theresa Villiers, the MP for Chipping Barnet and former Northern Ireland secretary, has said that she was offered a post in the new cabinet but has turned it down and will be resigning from her post.
Britain narrowly voted to exit the EU.
Johnson’s career was believed to be largely over in the wake of the extended political bloodletting that followed the UK’s vote to leave the European Union.
Seen as a tough, competent and intensely private person, already being compared to Germany’s Angela Merkel, she must now try to limit the damage to British trade and investment as she renegotiates the country’s ties with its 27 European Union partners.
May emphasised her commitment to delivering Brexit but “explained that we would need some time to prepare for these negotiations and spoke of her hope that these could be conducted in a constructive and positive spirit”, the spokeswoman said of the calls.
Hammond will meet with the head of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, on Thursday to “assess where we are”.
“The number one challenge is to stabilize the economy, send signals of confidence about the future, the plans we have for the future, to the markets, to businesses, to worldwide investors”, Hammond told Sky News.
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In a short session with reporters outside the British Foreign Office on Thursday, Johnson shrugged off in his typically colourful fashion the European expressions of horror at his appointment.
