Monday 13 November 2023

Rishi Sunak Sacks Suella Braverman, While David Cameron Joins the Cabinet as Foreign Minister (VIDEO)

Big shake up today.

At the New York Times, "U.K. Cabinet Reshuffle: Government Shuffle in Britain Brings David Cameron Back to Government":

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak fired his divisive home secretary, Suella Braverman, and named Mr. Cameron, the former prime minister, as foreign secretary.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain on Monday fired Suella Braverman, one of his most senior and divisive ministers, in a reshuffle of his top team that brought one of his predecessors, David Cameron, unexpectedly back into government as the foreign secretary.

The return of Mr. Cameron to a senior political post was an extraordinary turn for the former prime minister and the latest in a series of convulsions that have rocked the governing Conservative Party in recent years.

After 13 years in Downing Street, the party’s grip on power appears to be slipping ahead of a general election next year. Despite introducing various headline-grabbing right wing policies on crime and the environment, Mr. Sunak has failed to reverse the Labour party’s substantial lead in the opinion polls, as voters grapple with a cost of living crisis and a public sector under acute strain after years of Conservative-led austerity.

As prime minister, Mr. Cameron instigated the 2016 referendum that led to Britain’s departure from the European Union. After campaigning for Britain to remain in the bloc, he resigned when voters chose by a narrow margin to leave. Since then, the party has had a succession of leaders, including Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, and has been plagued by discord, with opposing factions fighting over how to implement Brexit, the size of the state and immigration policy.

Ms. Braverman was long a divisive figure in the party for her provocative rhetoric and hard-line stance on asylum seekers that won her support on the right while alienating more moderate colleagues.

Still, she was instrumental in helping Mr. Sunak become prime minister last fall and was able to hold on to her senior role as home secretary, responsible for law enforcement, immigration and national security, until she wrote a highly contentious opinion article last week ahead of a huge, pro-Palestinian demonstration in London on Saturday. In that article, she referred to protesters as “hate marchers,” criticized the police and implicitly undermined Mr. Sunak, who had not authorized the article and who had said the march should go ahead just hours before.

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