On a lighter note, Sir Malcolm recommended Mr Johnson could start his reinvention with a hair cut and by ” tucking his shirt into the back of his pants on a regular basis”.
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The shuffle signals that May values social mobility and self-made successes.
The Conservative politician, who served as foreign secretary between 1995 and 1997, insisted Mr Johnson was not a Donald Trump figure, but rather a “civilised and intelligent person”.
He said: “On Europe clearly we have to give effect to the will of the people in the referendum, but that does not mean in any sense leaving Europe”. Johnson has criticised President Obama as a “part-Kenyan” who harboured anti-British attitudes because his father’s nation was once part of the British empire.
Some said Johnson might surprise his many critics.
May has fired Justice Secretary Michael Gove, a former leader of the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union.
Former Mayor of London and foreman of the Leave campaign, Boris Johnson have been made Foreign Secretary, despite believing that he would not be given a place on the front bench in a May-run administration. Boris Johnson has the delicate job of handling diplomacy; except, well, his previous interactions have been rather un-delicate. As for the pace of the negotiation and triggering Article 50, the French Foreign Minister said “we can not let this ambiguous, blurred situation drag on”, calling for a prompt Brexit negotiation that will minimize uncertainty.
Veteran right-wingers David Davis and Liam Fox – both ardent campaigners for Brexit – have been named, respectively, as Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union and head of a new global trade department, key positions in the arduous negotiations ahead.
Three weeks after the referendum, May’s new government faces the formidably complex task of extricating Britain from the European Union – itself reeling from the shock of Brexit – while trying to protect the economy from feared disruption to confidence, trade and investment. It is not seen joining the bloc for many years.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew says he would like negotiations on Britain’s exit from the European Union to produce a “highly integrated relationship between the United Kingdom and the EU”.
The foreign policy spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party in Parliament said Thursday that many current British suggestions for future relations with the European Union were “unworkable”.
The European Commission said a planned Brussels dinner between BoJo and counterparts from 27 other EU member states on Sunday night had been cancelled.
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Newly appointed Treasury chief Philip Hammond, meanwhile, sought to reassure the markets and the public, saying there was no need for an emergency national budget, despite the question marks hanging over the British economy following the referendum. The campaign culminated in a vote for “Brexit’ on June 23”. He once said Britain’s Queen Elizabeth loved the Commonwealth as it supplied her with “cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies” who had “watermelon smiles”. “We are not turning our back on the world”.
