New British PM Boris Johnson’s ruthless purge of enemies before moving into No 10 Downing St
- British PM Boris Johnson overhauls cabinet with Brexit hardliners
- He takes over the leadership with a wafer-thin working majority in parliament
Dubbed the “night of the blond knives” after the new prime minister’s famously unruly hair, 18 of the 29 ministers who sat round the table of the now-departed leader Theresa May won’t be sitting in Johnson’s pro-Brexit war cabinet.
Some, like the former finance minister Philip Hammond resigned, others were pushed.
While many of the senior cabinet appointments were expected, no one had predicted quite so many sackings including that of pro-Brexit Liam Fox from his job as international trade secretary.
“The problem is the more you sack, the more enemies you’ve got behind you – that’s the danger of getting such a big clear out,” Liberal Democrat peer Richard Newby told Sky News.
“He has made a lot of promises, hasn’t he? Probably more than there are jobs so he’s got to get rid of anybody to whom he has not made a promise and that’s probably the biggest feature.”
Johnson, one of the architects of Brexit, will have just 98 days to reach a new departure agreement with the European Union over Brexit, or, as he has threatened, crash out without a deal.
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May failed because she couldn’t get her deal passed through parliament – Johnson has an even slimmer majority of just two and is likely to lose another MP in a by-election next week.
A YouGov survey Wednesday found his approval rating in Britain as a whole at just 31 per cent, low figures for the former journalist who could soon face a general election.
One of the few “remainers” in the new cabinet is Sajid Javid, the former home secretary who was promoted to become chancellor of the exchequer, following the resignation of May loyalist Hammond.
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Raab, a staunch supporter of Brexit, is unpopular in Brussels from when he was briefly Brexit secretary.
Hard-right Brexiteer Priti Patel, whose family fled Idi Amin in Uganda and who in 2017 was forced to resign as international development secretary for holding secret meetings with Israeli politicians, has been reincarnated as home secretary.
Johnson also rehabilitated the former defence secretary Gavin Williamson who upset China by announcing he would send the UK’s only aircraft carrier to the South China Sea.
Williamson will take up the position of education minister.
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In Whitehall, the biggest shock was caused by the appointment of Dominic Cummings, campaign director of the Vote Leave group in the 2016 EU Referendum, as Johnson’s chief adviser.
In March 2019, Cummings was found guilty of contempt of parliament after not appearing before a digital, culture, media and sport committee inquiry into foreign influence and voter manipulation during the EU referendum campaign.
Only last month Cummings wrote a 10,000-word blog post demanding an end to the influence of senior mandarins on elected politicians.
He called for the creation of “elite red teams” outside the control of the civil service whose job it would be to challenge official policy advice to ministers.
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Johnson’s 31-year-old girlfriend Carrie Symonds, former communications head of the Conservative Party, did not walk across the threshold of Downing Street with him after Queen Elizabeth had appointed him as prime minister.
Instead she stood with the group of aides and supporters who welcomed him outside.
The willingness of the 66,000 Conservative Party members who voted for Johnson as leader to turn a blind eye to his private life was indicative of how the country’s moral compass has shifted over the past few years.
There is speculation Symonds, who recently bought a house with Johnson and is credited with smartening up his famously dishevelled image, will move in to Number 10 at the weekend. It would be the first time that an unmarried couple have occupied the residence.
Last month neighbours at Symonds’ south London flat called the police after a screaming match between the couple, a recording of which was obtained by The Guardian.
In it, Johnson is heard telling Symonds to “get off my f***ing computer”.
As prime minister Johnson will also be able to count on the advice of his 78-year-old father Stanley Johnson, a former EU official.
With the departure of Hunt, whose wife Lucia is Chinese, Johnson loses valuable China expertise.
But help is at hand from his large clan.
His half-brother Max Johnson, the product of Stanley’s second marriage, runs an investment company MJ Capital, was the first British citizen to have graduated from Beijing’s Tsinghua University with an MBA.
He currently lives in Hong Kong with his Brazilian wife and is a Leading Light of the British Council in China.
One thing won’t change along with the country’s leadership: Larry, the Instagram-ready Downing Street cat, stays put.
Successive British leaders have explained that he is part of the prime minister’s household, not a personal pet.
Additional reporting by Tribune News Service and Agence France-Presse
