Boris Johnson, Britain’s newly appointed foreign secretary, said Thursday that quitting the European Union does not mean “leaving Europe” as he brushed off criticism of his appointment in Prime Minister Theresa May’s new Brexit government.
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The French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault offered an unusually blunt message to his new British counterpart Thursday. “He lied a lot to the British people during the campaign and now he is the one to have his back against the wall”.
Reaction from Britain, Europe and beyond to the appointment of prominent anti-European Union campaigner Boris Johnson as British foreign secretary.
Britain narrowly voted to exit the EU.
From composing a dirty limerick about the Turkish president and a goat to comparing the European Union to Hitler to calling Hillary Clinton a “sadistic nurse”, the mop-haired Johnson spared few world leaders in his previous career as the devil-may-care mayor of London.
May, 59, is unlikely to have had much sleep on her first night in Downing Street as after she had unveiled some of the main Cabinet posts it was time to take calls from European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French president Francois Hollande and Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
Simon McDonald, Under-Secretary of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, tweeted a picture of Mr Johnson’s first meeting with staff as Foreign Secretary on Thursday.
“He [Boris Johnson] was the face of the leave campaign, so it was sensible to have him as a high-profile colleague”, Time Bale, politics professor at Queen Mary University London told ABC News, adding: “I think it was also a juicy enough portfolio he couldn’t refuse but one in which he could implode without damaging the country”.
Johnson’s extraordinary appointment came weeks after his campaign to be prime minister ended suddenly when he was “knifed” by Michael Gove and was forced to drop out of the leadership race at the 11th hour (See: ).
Zajarova acknowledged that Russian Federation “would not miss” previous Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, and ex-Prime Minister David Cameron. And that seems to be the way that she and David Davis are leaning at the moment.
Education secretary Nicky Morgan, culture secretary John Whittingdale and Cabinet Office minister Oliver Letwin are among the other Cameron aides to be dropped from the frontline and pushed to the party’s backbenches.
“People here are slightly astonished that someone who ducked away from responsibility after he did not get the top job is now promoted into the Cabinet, especially as Foreign Secretary”.
“I need a partner with whom I can negotiate and who is clear, credible and reliable”, he said.
As leading newspapers across the world suggested it was “just Britain’s way of having us on”, Britishers too reacted with incredulity and shock.
Hammond was one of Prime Minister Theresa May’s first appointments, and one of his immediate tasks was to take to the airwaves in hopes of offering calming tones of reassurance to the markets and the general public about the economy.
“We can’t afford a long period of uncertainty”, he said.
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