FBritish Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his predecessor David Cameron sat opposite each other in the cabinet on Tuesday as if they were antipodes. But Sunak already invoked the “unity” of his greatly changed government team on Monday evening. This gives an indication that the dismissal of Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who was at the origin of the castling, had to do with her repeated statements that were not in agreement with Sunak.
It was less their right-wing conservative content than their spontaneity that attracted the Prime Minister’s displeasure. Sunak said at the start of the first cabinet meeting in the new composition that when he looked around the table, he knew “that we have an energetic and enthusiastic team that will deliver results for the country.”
The political competition was naturally less enthusiastic: on Tuesday, the left-wing Labor opposition viewed Cameron’s appointment as foreign minister as evidence that the government had “run out of ideas”. Shadow finance minister Rachel Reeves said Sunak and his cabinet could not deliver the change “our country is crying out for”.
Liberal Democrats: Don’t give Cameron a peerage
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said the news of the cabinet reshuffle “sounds like desperation.” The Liberal Democrats also demanded that Cameron should not be given a peerage because he has in recent years supported a financial firm called Greensill later collapsed. This commitment is not compatible with the dignity of a member of the upper house.
Cameron, meanwhile, said he had given up and resigned from all professional engagements and all honorary positions, including the presidency of the Society for the Study of Alzheimer’s. Mr Cameron said he now had “just one job, to be Foreign Secretary and to work with the Prime Minister to make the UK as safe and prosperous as possible in a difficult and dangerous world”.
In addition to the Foreign and Interior Ministries, which went to the previous Foreign Minister James Cleverly after Braverman’s dismissal, the departments for health and the environment as well as the ministry without a portfolio, which is assigned to the general secretary of the conservative party, were also newly assigned. The previous Health Minister Steve Barclay took over the Ministry of the Environment. In his new role, he will have to renew the credibility of the government’s environmental and climate policy, which has suffered following Sunak’s recent announcements to postpone some targets such as the ban on new internal combustion engine cars. In his previous role, Barclay had tried to end the series of strikes by healthcare workers through tough negotiations.
Brexit supporter Leadsom becomes State Secretary
This key task now falls to the new Health Minister Victoria Atkins. In recent years she has held various parliamentary state secretary positions in the ministries of the interior, justice and finance. Former Labor Minister Esther McVey returns to Sunak’s cabinet table as “Cabinet Minister”, a coordination task comparable to that of the head of the Federal Chancellery.
The Conservative party management will be taken over by Richard Holden, whose constituency is part of the once Labor-dominated “red wall” in the north of England, which was brought down by Boris Johnson in the last general election in 2019. In his new role, which is comparable to the position of party general secretary, he replaces Greg Hands, who had to take responsibility for the Conservatives’ recent dramatic by-election defeats. Hands returns as trade minister, a post he held under previous Conservative prime ministers.
The returnees also include former business secretary Andrea Leadsom, a staunch Brexiteer who will become secretary of state at the Department of Health, and Damian Hinds, who is taking a similar position at the Department for Education, which he once headed.
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