LONDON — New British Prime Minister Theresa May wasted no time Thursday ushering in a new …
Theresa May puts stamp on British government with mass firing of Cameron ministers
British Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at 10 Downing Street to appoint her cabinet on Wednesday. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
The mass firing of top lieutenants to David Cameron marked a more determined break in direction for May than many political observers had anticipated, or than May herself had advertised.
In this summer’s brief contest for the nation’s top job, she had campaigned as the continuity candidate — the one who would embrace Cameron’s legacy even as she took the country in the radically different direction that voters demanded when they endorsed an exit from the European Union in last month’s referendum.
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(Adam Taylor, Jason Aldag/The Washington Post)
Travers said that May had an even more difficult task than most prime ministers, who have to form a cabinet that reflects geographical, gender and ethnic balance. May had the additional burden of trying to balance “remainers” and “leavers” as she attempts to heal the bitter divisions within the Conservative Party that came to the fore during last month’s vote.
May — who campaigned for “remain” — made good on an earlier vow to appoint prominent “leave” politicians to top posts.
Chief among them was the flamboyant and ever-undiplomatic Boris Johnson, former mayor of London, who was awarded the plum job of foreign secretary late Wednesday. The move spawned head-scratching worldwide, given his past critical comments about President Obama, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and many others.
Other prominent pro-Brexit politicians were left on the sidelines. Michael Gove, the justice secretary who was seen as the intellectual architect of the Brexit campaign, was among those left out of May’s cabinet.
Gove had earned the tag of “Britain’s Brutus” after ambushing his friend and fellow Brexiteer, Johnson, and knocking him from the race for the country’s top job.
Cameron, Osborne and Gove had together been known as the “Notting Hill set,” a group of relatively young, Oxford-educated men who sought to modernize a party long known for its fustiness. May also studied at Oxford but was never considered part of that clubby grouping.
Other top officials who lost their jobs Thursday were Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, Culture Secretary John Whittingdale and Oliver Letwin, who was to have served as a point person in Brexit talks.
The thorough sweep came just a day after May curtsied before Queen Elizabeth II and became the country’s prime minister, ending a weeks-long vacuum at the top of the government that was triggered by the E.U. vote and Cameron’s subsequent resignation.
In her first speech as the country’s leader, May indicated she would chart a new course, emphasizing the need for social justice and saying she would govern on behalf of the poor, minorities, women and others who have traditionally not been given a strong voice in government.
In at least one early nod to that vision, she created a new post Thursday, one that combined the business and energy departments under one umbrella but also added a third mission: “industrial strategy.” The phrase is more associated with the active government intervention in the economy advocated by the Labour Party left than with the hands-off policies of the Tory right.
Personal rivalries may explain some of May’s personnel decisions. She and Gove, for instance, were famously at odds when they both served in Cameron’s cabinet.
But in some cases, the new prime minister was able to overlook old — and not-so-old — grudges. Just last week, for instance, her then-adversary for Britain’s top job, Andrea Leadsom, suggested to the Times of London that her own status as a mother would make her a better prime minister than the childless May.
Whatever offense May took, she overlooked it on Thursday, appointing Leadsom to be the new environment secretary.
May’s picks were praised by her fellow Conservatives, who have largely stopped attacking each other after months of intra-party skirmishing over Brexit. But not everyone was impressed; her pick for foreign secretary came in for particular scrutiny.
Yvette Cooper, a prominent Labour member of Parliament, called the selection of Johnson “a very, very unwise appointment” and suggested that the new prime minister plans to use him as a scapegoat if things go wrong with Brexit.
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LONDON — New British Prime Minister Theresa May wasted no time Thursday ushering in a new …
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