The new British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, today re-appointed Suella Braverman as Home Secretary, less than a week after she resigned from her post, contributing to the ouster of Liz Truss, the former head of government.
The 42-year-old former lawyer of Indian origin, a French-educated francophone in Paris, left the government last Wednesday for sending official documents from his personal email account.
But, according to the British press, the dismissal masked strong disagreements with Druss on the issue of immigration, on which Braverman has a hard-line position, considered “Europhobic and anti-immigration.”
During the Conservative Party’s annual conference earlier this month, Braverman said it was his “dream” and “obsession” to one day see a plane full of asylum seekers take off for Rwanda.
Betting on various government actors, but with allies in key positions, Sunak seeks to foster unity within the party and the government, appointing ministers representing various party factions, with some women in key portfolios.
In this sense, Sunak decided to keep Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt, who was appointed in mid-October to calm the financial turmoil caused by the previous head of government’s economic plan.
A ‘hard’ politician with experience as head of the health and foreign affairs departments, Hunt, 55, canceled almost all the tax cuts announced by the Truss government within days of taking office.
The minister backed away from a pledge not to cut public spending and expected “many tough decisions” to save billions of pounds, raising fears of a return to austerity policies.
A medium-term financial plan is scheduled to be tabled by Hunt in Parliament on October 31.
Chung, a Brexit supporter, was today appointed deputy prime minister and justice minister, first to succeed Dominic Raab, the former head of British diplomacy who was his ally in the Conservative primary election, when Boris Johnson resigned on July 7. Then to Truss, who announced his resignation last Thursday.
Sunak will keep James Wise, previously appointed by Truss, as head of the Foreign Office and Ben Wallace as head of the Department of Defence, while Grand Shops will oversee the commercial affairs portfolio.
Nadim Zahavi, who held ministerial posts in the Johnson and Truss administrations, was appointed minister without portfolio.
Sunak today promised to put “economic stability” at the heart of a government that wants to lead with “integrity, professionalism and responsibility” and right the “mistakes” made by Truce.
In a speech outside the House of Commons in Downing Street, after being nominated by King Charles III, Sunak said “certain mistakes” had been made and he had been elected “to put them right”.
Sunak pledged to “put economic stability and confidence at the heart of this government’s agenda”, which he warned, “will mean taking tough decisions”.
Meanwhile, ministers Jacob Rees-Mogg (Economy), Simon Clarke (Equality), Ranil Jayawardena (Environment) and Chloe Smith (Labour) announced their resignations.
Rishi Sunak is Britain’s third prime minister since earlier this year and the fifth to hold the post in six years.
A descendant of Indian immigrants, he was the first leader of Asian descent in British history and the first practitioner of Hinduism.
Sunak, 42, is the youngest British leader in more than 200 years, a year younger than David Cameron in 2010 and Tony Blair in 1997.
He was elected leader of the Conservative Party after becoming the only candidate to receive the required 100 votes from fellow MPs.
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