Prime Minister Boris Johnson reshuffled his senior team today, announcing Liz Truss as his new Foreign Secretary ahead of a difficult winter for his government.
- Dominic Raab, who was demoted but promoted to Justice Secretary and Minister Of Foreign affairs in place of Robert Buckland, was replaced by the former international trade secretary.
- Mr. Johnson also replaced Gavin Williamson as Education Secretary with Nadhim Zahawi, and Michael Gove as Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government with Robert Jenrick.
- After the Morning Star went to press, more moves at the junior ministerial level were expected.
- Mr. Johnson said he needed a “strong and united” Cabinet in the face of mounting public outrage over his planned increase in National Insurance contributions, cuts to universal credit payments, and supply chain disruption that is leaving supermarket shelves bare.
- Despite being chastised by unions, teachers, and MPs for his handling of school closures and exam cancellations during the Covid-19 outbreak, Mr. Williamson tweeted that he was “proud of the dramatic improvements” he claims to have led in education.
- Labour’s shadow education secretary, Kate Green, reacted to the news by saying that the South Staffordshire MP had “failed young people, their parents, and our hardworking education staff.”
- Two years of exams chaos and staff abandoned, unsupported and demoralized, that is Gavin Williamson’s legacy.”
New ministers will have only a few weeks to prepare for the Conservative Party conference – and, more importantly, for the government’s spending review, which requires ministries to submit detailed proposals to the Treasury.
