News
PM Boris Johnson Appoints New Health & Finance Ministers
Shortly after British Health Secretary Sajid Javid and Chancellor of the Exchequer; Rishi Sunak tendered their resignation, reports said Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed new finance and health ministers on Tuesday.
Britain’s Cabinet chief of staff; Steve Barclay has been appointed as the new health secretary while UK education secretary; Nadhim Zahawi was named as the new finance minister both replacing Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid who earlier quit in protest over Boris Johnson’s leadership.
Nadhim Zahawi who is replacing Mr. Sunak, inherits an economy that is likely heading for a sharp slowdown or even a recession.
The former education secretary will face immediate pressure to do more to help struggling households and to lower taxes which are on course to hit their highest level in decades.
Steve Barclay was appointed health minister, replacing Mr. Javid, after serving as Mr. Johnson’s chief of staff and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
He was handed the chief of staff role in February as part of a shake-up of No 10 in response to the party gate scandal.
Labour greeted Mr. Barclay’s appointment to the helm of the Health Department by congratulating him as “the shortest serving Health Secretary in history”.
Mr. Johnson is battling to remain in No 10 as his handling of a row over scandal-hit former deputy chief whip; Chris Pincher prompted the resignation of Sunak & Javid.
Sunak in his resignation letter said he was “sad to be leaving the government”, but has come to the conclusion that he “cannot continue like this”.
“The public rightly expects the government to be conducted properly, competently, and seriously. I recognize this may be my last ministerial job, but I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I am resigning,” Rishi Sunak said.
Javid said he had lost confidence in Boris Johnson’s ability to govern following multiple scandals, saying he could “no longer continue in good conscience”. The minister said that many lawmakers and the public had lost confidence in Johnson’s ability to govern in the national interest.
In his resignation letter, which he posted to Twitter, Javid told Johnson that “the values you represent reflect on your colleagues,” and in light of recent scandals, the public had concluded that their party was neither “competent” nor “acting in the national interest.”
The exit of the top minister comes amid the row involving the former Conservative party whip Chris Pincher, who was accused of sexual misconduct.
Last week, Pincher quit as deputy chief whip after claims that he groped two men but Johnson knew about allegations against him as far back as 2019. Boris acknowledged he should have sacked Pincher when he was found to have behaved inappropriately when he was a Foreign Office minister in 2019.
“In hindsight, it was the wrong thing to do and I apologize to everyone who has been badly affected by it. I just want to make absolutely clear that there’s no place in this government for anybody who is predatory or abuses their position of power,” he said.
