New Prime Minister Theresa May ruthlessly overhauled the British cabinet on Thursday, sacking a raft of ministers, promoting loyalists and putting supporters of Britain’s exit from the European Union firmly in charge of negotiating its terms.
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But the overhaul only resulted in the number of women in Cabinet climbing by one to eight, and some Tory MPs expressed confusion over who would control Brexit policy as three outspoken Leave campaigners – Mr Johnson, David Davis at the new department for European Union withdrawal, and Liam Fox, who was put in charge of International Trade – were all placed in control of different aspects of the project.
With his unkempt blonde hair, bumbling humour and penchant for gaffes, he is a colourful but contentious choice for conducting sensitive diplomacy with world leaders.
Some said Johnson might surprise his many critics.
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.
After Obama in April said he hoped that Britons would vote to stay in the EU, Johnson described America’s first black president as a “part-Kenyan” with an “ancestral dislike of the British empire”.
He had previously voiced fears that the government might try to renege on the popular vote but said: “I feel more optimistic now”.
In a Facebook post published Wednesday, European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans denounced the “bigotry” of the Leave campaign and said, “What looks like daring hyperbole in public school debating clubs, good for a couple of laughs over beer, will be taken on face value by people who do not see all this as a game, but whose livelihood truly depends on it.hatred came into play and we have seen the effects”.
May’s first calls were to Europe’s top two powerbrokers, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande.
But her decision to put Johnson on the world stage dealing with foreign leaders is raising questions, largely because of Johnson’s propensity for saying exactly wrong thing at the wrong time, sometimes in the most provocative way.
Downing Street says Liz Truss has been named justice secretary and lord chancellor – the top official in the judicial system.
The No 10 spokeswoman said Ms May had told Mr Juncker the United Kingdom meant to continue “working closely” with the Commission on existing business and as the United Kingdom negotiates its withdrawal from the EU.
Ms Justine Greening, formerly in charge of worldwide development, is now Education Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities. In six years in that job, she was unable to bring down the influx to “the tens of thousands” a year as her party promised.
“The prime minister explained that we would need some time to prepare for the negotiations”, the spokeswoman said.
And following Theresa May’s appointment to officer as the new Prime Minister, the aircraft is now under new ownership. But completely different political tasks now stand at the forefront: “This is about taking foreign policy responsibility beyond Brexit”. She axed a handful of prominent ministers including Justice Secretary Michael Gove, a leading Brexit campaigner who had staged his own bid for prime minister.
Hammond will meet with the head of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, on Thursday to “assess where we are”.
However, most of the economists were of the view that Britain’s membership of the European Union has translated into more trade than would otherwise have been the case.
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Hammond told ITV that while there is no plan for an emergency budget, “the markets do need signals of reassurance, they need to know we will do whatever is necessary to keep the economy on track”.
