Sunak and Judd resigned from their posts on Tuesday in disagreement with the administration of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and were replaced by two of the prime minister’s main allies in the government.
Amid the exchanges, Higher Education Minister Michelle Dunhan will take over the education portfolio, according to a government statement.
The appointments took more than four hours to become official, longer than usual in the cases of such related ministries.
A Downing Street source told EFE that Zahawi had threatened to leave the government and join the “rebels” if Johnson did not agree to his position in the economy. The prime minister’s initial intention was to select Secretary of State Liz Truss.
In the end, Al-Zahawi, 55, won the arm-wrestling, according to the local press, and would be left with one of the most important cabinet portfolios in the government, and automatically transferred to Johnson’s successor.
Al-Zahawi’s name became popular in the UK as of November 2020, as Minister of Vaccination and largely responsible for the effective COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the country.
Johnson announced on Tuesday that the next day he would reveal details of the “largest tax cut in a decade,” but it was not immediately clear if the plan would go through with Zahawi.
Barclay, 50, is one of Johnson’s most loyal partners, who put him in charge of the Cabinet Department for trying to bring order to the inner workings of Downing Street.
Donilan, 38, became a minister for the first time, after two years as head of government and seven years as a deputy. EFE
