New PM Liz Truss’ cabinet is Britain’s first without white man in top jobs
- Kwasi Kwarteng and James Cleverly have been appointed the UK’s first black finance and foreign ministers, respectively
- Suella Braverman, whose parents came to Britain from Kenya and Mauritius six decades ago, holds the post of home secretary
New British Prime Minister Liz Truss has selected a cabinet in which, for the first time, a white man will not hold one of the country’s four most important ministerial positions.
Truss appointed Kwasi Kwarteng – whose parents arrived in the UK from Ghana in the 1960s – as Britain’s first black finance minister while James Cleverly is the first black foreign minister.
Cleverly, whose mother hails from Sierra Leone and whose father is white, has in the past spoken about being bullied as a mixed-race child and has said the party needs to do more to attract black voters.
Suella Braverman, whose parents came to Britain from Kenya and Mauritius six decades ago, succeeds Priti Patel as the second ethnic minority home secretary, or interior minister, where she will be responsible for police and immigration.
The growing diversity is in part thanks to a push by the Conservative Party in recent years to put forward a more varied set of candidates for parliament.