Former London mayor Boris Johnson has been appointed as British foreign secretary in a surprise appointment by the country’s new Prime Minister Theresa May.
Advertisement
These jobs, known as the Great Offices of State, include the role of Prime Minister, which Theresa May assumed after her only rival for the position, Andrea Leadsom, pulled out of the Conservative leadership contest on Tuesday.
“We have just played a game of street rugby with a bunch of kids and I accidentally flattened a 10-year-old, on TV unfortunately”, Johnson said afterward.
Asked specifically about Ms. May’s selection of Mr. Johnson as foreign secretary, Mr. Earnest replied, “Whomever they choose, it’s up to them”.
Writing in The Sun tabloid, Johnson called Obama a “part-Kenyan president” – referring to the birth country of Obama’s father – and said the president had an “ancestral dislike of the British empire”.
In fact, Johnson’s only reason for supporting Clinton was because he wanted her husband back in the White House.
After formally being invited to form a government by Queen Elizabeth II, May arrived at her new Downing Street residence with a promise to tackle “burning injustice”.
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.
On Twitter, Mr Osborne, who was chancellor throughout Mr Cameron’s tenure, said the job had been a “privilege”, adding: “Others will judge – I hope I’ve left the economy in a better state than I found it”.
Johnson made his comment in the heat of the “Brexit” referendum campaign, when disparaging comments about the European Union were falling easily from his lips.
Gone were Cameron allies including ex-Treasury chief George Osborne, Cameron’s friend and neighbour and like him the product of an elite private school.
However, more recently Johnson has backed off from his comments, calling the former first lady “particularly gracious and charming” in 2015.
Speaking to BBC news after his appointment on Wednesday, Mr Johnson said he was “obviously very, very humbled, very, very proud to be offered this chance”.
Mr Johnson is a former journalist who became MP for Henley in 2001 who was mayor of London for eight years.
“Did you all see what his style was like through the campaign?”
The party’s Rolf Muetzenich said he wouldn’t be surprised if, next, “Britain appoints Dracula as health secretary”.
His appointment as foreign secretary was unexpected.
She has also fired Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, who backed Gove’s short-lived leadership campaign.
May is expected to name a raft of new ministers on Thursday.
European Parliament President Martin Schulz said the EU would “work constructively” with the new British government.
Veteran right-wingers David Davis and Liam Fox have been named, respectively, as Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union and head of a new global trade department, both key positions in the arduous negotiations ahead.
Philip Hammond said the referendum result caused an economic “shock” and did not rule out the possibility of an economic slowdown.
Advertisement
The figure did not take account of London’s budget rebate or of European Union spending on public and private sector projects in the United Kingdom, and Leave campaigners have since acknowledged it was inflated.
