Prominent ministers out as UK’s new PM shows a ruthless streak
Print Edition
NEW Prime Minister Theresa May showed a ruthless streak yesterday in building a Cabinet to lead Britain’s exit from the European Union, while her finance minister said he would do whatever was necessary to restore confidence in the economy.
A day after replacing David Cameron, May moved to impose her authority by axing a handful of prominent ministers including Justice Secretary Michael Gove, a leading Brexit campaigner who had staged his own bid to be prime minister.
Her most contentious appointment is Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who compared the EU’s aims to those of Hitler and Napoleon during the campaign leading up to Britain’s vote last month to quit the 28-nation bloc.
Three weeks after the referendum, May’s new government faces the formidably complex task of extricating Britain from the EU — itself reeling from the shock of Brexit — while trying to protect the economy from feared disruption to confidence, trade and investment.
The Bank of England kept interest rates unchanged yesterday, wrong-footing many investors who had expected the first cut in more than seven years.
But it said it was likely to deliver a stimulus in three weeks’ time to support the economy, once it has assessed the fallout from the June 23 vote. The pound rose sharply on the news, while shares fell.
New finance minister Philip Hammond signaled he would take a less aggressive approach to cutting the budget deficit than his predecessor George Osborne, who was dumped on Wednesday.
“Markets do need signals of reassurance, they need to know that we will do whatever is necessary to keep the economy on track,” Hammond said.
“Of course we’ve got to reduce the deficit further but looking at how and when and at what pace we do that ... is something that we now need to consider in the light of the new circumstances that the economy is facing.”
May, who had favored a vote to stay in the EU, must now decide when and how to start official divorce proceedings from the other 27 countries, who are pressing her to move quickly to lift the uncertainty hanging over them all.
In her first words to the nation on Wednesday, she promised to champion social justice and to help ordinary Britons in their struggle to make ends meet.
“The government I lead will be driven not by the interests of the privileged few, but by yours. We will do everything we can to give you more control over your lives,” she said.
In one of her first acts, May dismissed finance minister Osborne, a leading voice among those who had warned that leaving the EU would spell economic doom.
Yesterday, she followed up by removing the justice, education, culture and Cabinet office ministers.
Work and Pensions Minister Stephen Crabb, who had also sought the prime minister’s job, resigned citing family reasons, days after the married politician had hit the front pages for allegedly sending flirtatious messages to a young woman. The Northern Ireland minister also quit.
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