Boris Johnson: What the new prime minister’s cabinet shake-up will look like

Boris Johnson will make a bid to broaden his appeal by using his first day as prime minister to appoint women and ethnic minority MPs to what aides were terming a “cabinet for modern Britain”.

The shake-up is expected to include a return to the cabinet for Priti Patel, 20 months after she was forced to resign after she was revealed to have set up secret back-channel negotiations with the Israeli government, as well as promotions for rising stars from across different wings of the party.

After his landslide victory in the race to succeed Theresa May as Conservative leader, Mr Johnson faces an urgent need to shore up the party’s position, with his wafer-thin working majority expected to be reduced to just one after next week’s Brecon and Radnorshire by-election.

He is also facing potentially expensive negotiations with Arlene Foster’s DUP over the coming weeks to renew the agreement under which that party props up the minority Conservative administration. But he played down suggestions he could call an early election in a bid to secure the healthy majority he is likely to need to deliver Brexit, telling Tory MPs a poll was “not a priority”.

With a string of senior pro-EU figures including chancellor Philip Hammond and international development secretary Rory Stewart set to resign rather than serve under him, the new PM was being pressed to use his appointments to unify the Tories after the infighting of the May years.

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After visiting Buckingham Palace to be formally appointed Ms May’s successor by the Queen and addressing the nation from the steps of Downing Street, Mr Johnson will fill the top four jobs in his new cabinet on Wednesday evening.

Further appointments on Thursday are expected to produce a record number of ethnic minority MPs at the cabinet table, as well as an increase in the number of women (currently five) attending as full members.

Staunch Brexiteer and former international development secretary Ms Patel and employment minister Alok Sharma are expected to be appointed to cabinet roles.

And rising stars to be promoted to ministerial roles outside cabinet are likely to include junior local government minister Rishi Sunak, Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden and Treasury minister Robert Jenrick, whose joint article hailing Johnson as the man to save the Tories from an “existential threat” was seen as a key moment in proving his campaign’s ability to attract talent from across the party.

Also likely to be rewarded with a ministerial job is former sports minister Tracey Crouch, who quit Ms May’s government last November in protest at delays in introducing limits on gambling machine stakes.

A source close to Mr Johnson said: “Boris will build a cabinet showcasing all the talents within the party that truly reflect modern Britain.”

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The first member of his parliamentary team was named as chief whip Mark Spencer, who will help him shape the government over the coming days. Also appointed were former City Hall right-hand man Sir Edward Lister as chief of staff and Sky executive Andrew Griffith as chief business adviser.

Labour immediately denounced the job for Griffith – who lent Johnson his Westminster home as a base for his leadership campaign – as a sign that the new PM was ready to reward “super-rich pals” and govern “in the interest of the wealthy elite”.

Mr Johnson was given an enthusiastic reception at a meeting of the backbench 1922 Committee shortly after securing the leadership by seeing off rival Jeremy Hunt. But one MP leaving the meeting said his performance showed that “the circus has come to town”.

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Even as he was being named Ms May’s successor as Conservative leader on Tuesday, Mr Johnson faced a flat rejection from Europe of his proposals to fundamentally change her withdrawal agreement, which he has said is “dead”.

European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans said Brussels would “stick” to the deal agreed with Ms May last November, while chief negotiator Michel Barnier said the EU looked forward to “working constructively” on ratifying it.

Johnson was expected to face MPs in the House of Commons for the first time on Thursday, though advisers were split over whether to expose their man to hostile questioning and the potential for gaffes at the despatch box, or to dodge a parliamentary grilling until September at the risk of being accused of running scared..

Former cabinet minister Justine Greening said it was “vital he comes to parliament to set out his Brexit strategy, not only to MPs but to the country”.

“For most prime ministers, it is their first 100 days that count,” Ms Greening told The Independent. “For Boris it is the first 100 hours.

“Britain is in the midst of a crisis on Brexit and Boris, as the new prime minister, must now set out how he plans to break the Brexit deadlock that led to Theresa May’s government failing so dramatically.”

Mr Johnson was not expected to be subjected to a vote of no confidence in his first days in power, as Jeremy Corbyn said Labour would wait until the “appropriate” time to mount a bid to oust him, while figures from both Leave and Remain sides of the Tory party indicated they would give him a chance to show his mettle over the summer. If he does not address the Commons on Thursday, there will be no requirement on him to face MPs until his first session of prime minister’s questions on 5 September.

In a speech immediately after his landslide 66-33 per cent victory over Mr Hunt in a vote of 160,000 party members, Mr Johnson promised to use a “new spirit of can-do” to turn around Tory fortunes and deliver Brexit following the frustrations of the May years.

“I say to all the doubters, ‘Dude, we are going to energise the country’,” he said.

“We are going to get Brexit done on October 31. We are going to take advantage of all the opportunities that it will bring in a new spirit of can-do. And we are once again going to believe in ourselves and what we can achieve.”

But an instant YouGov poll of 1,730 voters found that 37 per cent were “dismayed” at Johnson’s elevation, against 18 per cent who were “pleased” and 10 per cent “delighted”. Some 17 per cent said they did not care either way.

US president Donald Trump was among the first to congratulate the new PM, telling a conference of the right-wing youth movement Turning Point that he was “a good man, he’s tough and he’s smart, he is a Britain Trump”. Daughter Ivanka sparked ridicule by welcoming him on Twitter as “the next prime minister of United Kingston”.

The president suggested that Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage would be working with the new PM, telling the crowd: “They are going to do some tremendous things.”

Ms May promised “my full support from the backbenches” to the man who walked out of her cabinet a year ago.

On entering Downing Street, Mr Johnson will be briefed immediately on the crisis in the Gulf, where tensions have been heightened following Iran’s seizure of the British-registered Stena Impero tanker.

Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif used a congratulatory message to say Tehran did not seek confrontation but would protect its waters around the Strait of Hormuz.

Mr Corbyn urged the new leader to call a general election and promised to table a motion of no confidence “at a time of our choosing”.

“He’s been elected by less than 100,000 people, and he’s been elected on a programme which appears to be tax write-offs for the very richest and a no-deal exit from the European Union,” Mr Corbyn said.

“I think he needs to think a bit more carefully about where we’re going.”

Removal vans will arrive at No 10 for Ms May as she offers her resignation to the Queen after completing a valedictory prime minister’s questions in the Commons. But the Johnson camp was tight-lipped over whether Mr Johnson’s partner Carrie Symonds will move into the famous townhouse with him.