Boris Johnson’s appointment as the United Kingdom’s foreign minister has brought gasps of shock in diplomatic circles at home and overseas – especially in Europe.
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And it has left people across the world alternately baffled, confused, amused and even angry. Asked what he expected of working with Johnson, given such comments, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said – to laughter – “you see that it’s an advantage not to have such a great command of the English language”.
One lady rebuffed the naysayers.
Britain’s new foreign secretary Boris Johnson will meet EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Sunday evening in Brussels but a planned dinner with Johnson’s EU peers has been canceled, the European Commission said.
Have a look for yourself. The fact that Mr Davis is a sceptic on Europe helps; whatever European Union deal he gets is more likely to be accepted by MPs in London.
“At this incredibly important time.it is extraordinary that the new prime minister has chosen someone whose career is built on making jokes”, said Tim Farron, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats.
Former energy and climate change secretary Amber Rudd has been promoted in May’s new Cabinet as Home Secretary, the portfolio previously held by May herself, with Eurosceptic David Davis being made in charge of a new department for Exiting the European Union and being dubbed “Brexit minister”.
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’s attacked people from all parts of the world, from Liverpool to Papua New Guinea.
“Sir Christopher Meyer, a former United Kingdom ambassador to the U.S., told Sky News he thought the appointment was “‘bold, imaginative, risky”, but that it could be a “shot of adrenalin” through the British diplomatic system which after Brexit would need to “raise its game around the world”. While in Parliament, he offended an entire British city when he complained that people from Liverpool were wallowing in “victim status” after one of their own was taken hostage and slain in Iraq.
By dividing up responsibility for Brexit, however, Snowdon said May had ensured she could keep overall control.
Boris Johnson, Britain’s most colorful politician with a long record of gaffes and scandals, was appointed as foreign secretary on Wednesday in a surprise move by new Prime Minister Theresa May that could shake up world diplomacy.
In a weird twist, Johnson has also offered unusual praise for Syrian leader Bashar Assad, calling him a vile dictator but hailing the success of his forces in beating back Islamic State extremists.
She is under pressure from European Union leaders to quickly begin the formal exit process, but she has yet to reveal her timetable.
“It is not without risks”, said Christopher Meyer, a former British ambassador to the United States.
“To be honest, I find this outrageous”, Steinmeier said, “but it’s not just bitter for Great Britain”.
The cheerful, extroverted Johnson has had some notable successes. During the referendum campaign, Johnson chose to enter a British magazine’s competition for an offensive poem about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Mrs May, 59, won the leadership of the Conservative Party after her final rival, Andrea Leadsom, dropped out of the race, which many were expecting to last until September but was surprisingly shortened as candidate after candidate pulled out in a series of political back-stabbings.
“We’re seeing a government being created, not for the best interests of the country but in order to deal with the perpetual internal war in the Conservative Party between europhiliacs and europhobes”.
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Meanwhile, Labour’s ex-shadow business secretary Angela Eagle, who read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at St John’s College, Oxford, has launched her leadership challenge. Some commentators have felt compelled to defend him against “spiteful attacks”, well before the latest torrent of criticism since he landed his new job. He was defense minister from 2010 to 2011 and is a former minister in the foreign office. It is not clear if he will try to fit the traditional mold of Britain foreign secretary or retain his capricious approach to diplomatic niceties.
