After six years as interior minister under David Cameron, May signalled her intention to start with a clean slate by ruthlessly ejecting several of her former colleagues.
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Her most contentious appointment is Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, accused by his French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault on Thursday of lying to Britons in the run-up to last month’s shock referendum vote to leave the 28-nation EU.
Yesterday, Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Mr Johnson’s appointment as his British counterpart shows that the new government is serious about leaving the European Union and called on Mrs May to kick off exit talks “as soon as possible”.
On leaving the prime minister’s Downing Street office, Johnson immediately got into a ministerial auto and went to speak to staff at the Foreign Office.
The previous treasury chief, George Osborne, departed Wednesday.
She has also fired Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, who backed Gove’s short-lived leadership campaign.
The shuffle signals that May values social mobility and self-made successes.
“I came into Downing Street to confront our problems as a country and lead people through hard decisions so that together we could reach better times”. But his appointment as foreign secretary caused some consternation around the world.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Thursday: “We must let Her Majesty’s new government have a bit of time to make the necessary decisions”.
With (Other OTC: WWTH – news) his unkempt blonde hair, bumbling humour and penchant for gaffes, he is a colourful but contentious choice for conducting sensitive diplomacy with world leaders.
Johnson, once the front-runner for prime minister, could have some fence-mending to do with Washington: After President Barack Obama came out against Brexit, Johnson suggested that the “part-Kenyan” president may not have Britain’s interests at heart because of his anti-colonial outlook.
On his first day in the job Thursday, Johnson struck a sober tone.
“That’s very sensible. It will ensure confidence among those in the party who did campaign to leave that they have a champion who believes in what they campaigned for”, Grayling said.
“There’s a massive difference between leaving the European Union and our relations with Europe, which if anything I think are going to be intensified”, he told reporters.
Some said Johnson might surprise his many critics. As May spoke in front of her new residence, a small band of pro-Brexit demonstrators down the street chanted “Theresa May, don’t delay!” May has given him the chance to live up to his potential – or to fail spectacularly.
The United States congratulated May and said it was confident in her ability to steer Britain through the Brexit negotiations. “There may be some mishaps”.
Tony Blair had planned to buy two private jets when he was Prime Minister at the cost of about £100m, but it was scrapped by Gordon Brown, while the US President’s Air Force One cost £200m. He will lead a new department charged with the complex work of divorcing Britain from the bloc yet forging a new relationship with it.
Philip Hammond, who had been foreign secretary, is now chancellor. For years the libertarian Davis has sparred with May over the powers of Britain’s spy agencies.
She is under pressure from pro-Brexit Conservatives and other European Union leaders to start formal exit talks with the bloc. “I’d like to see us outside the single market and with full access to a tariff-free deal”.
Mr Davis said the country should take its time before triggering the formal Article 50 process to leave the bloc – an approach at odds with other European states, who have urged Britain to do quickly to clear up uncertainty.
She has been MP for Maidenhead, the well-to-do commuter town west of London, since 1997 and was previously chairman of the Conservative party.
“But, in a speech delivered during the Brexit campaign, Davis said: ‘There is nearly certainly going to be a deal, one that maintains a free market between the European Union and the U.K'”.
Hammond acknowledged that investment in Britain had been shaken since the referendum result.
“Britain is open for business”, he said.
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She has insisted that there will be no turning back on the country’s departure, and that “Brexit means Brexit”.
