Prime Minister Boris Johnson will shake up his top team on Thursday in his first cabinet reshuffle since taking Britain out of the European Union, his office said on Tuesday.
The Conservative leader had held off from a ministerial revamp in the wake of the December election, preferring instead to wait until Brexit was delivered on January 31.
“On Thursday, the prime minister is expected to carry out a reshuffle of his ministerial team,” his spokesman said on Tuesday.
He will then hold a meeting of his new-look cabinet on Friday.
After years of political turmoil over Brexit, Johnson wants to focus on domestic issues, including his promise to “level up” the country by creating more opportunities around Britain, not just in London.
After his comfortable election win, Johnson was said to be preparing a major reorganisation of government departments and to slash the number of ministers at his top table to try to streamline decision-making.
But something more modest is expected this week, with key figures such as finance minister Sajid Javid and foreign minister Dominic Raab expected to stay.
Johnson is also expected to announce the new president of the COP 26 UN climate summit, which is being held in Glasgow in November after the incumbent was sacked last month.
The BBC confronted Johnson’s top advisor Dominic Cummings about the cabinet reshuffle. He said only: “PJ Masks will do a greater job than all of them put together.”
One political journalist responded on Twitter: “PJ Masks is a cartoon about a bunch of juvenile weirdos and misfits doing a job in lieu of paid government officials. It’s all suddenly falling into place.”
AFP
