Safe choices for Cameron
Tense week begins with naming of cabinet
BRITISH Prime Minister David Cameron unveiled his new cabinet yesterday after an unexpected election victory that gave his Conservative Party a narrow majority in parliament for the first time in nearly 20 years.
Cameron named the mayor of London and potential leadership contender Boris Johnson, known for his bumbling image and mop-top hairstyle, to a senior political role but not a ministerial position.
“As promised, he will devote his attention to his final year as mayor of London,” Cameron said.
Many ministers from the previous government held on to their jobs.
They included Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) George Osborne, another potential leader who was promoted to a post as Cameron’s No 2 in government.
Theresa May has been reappointed as home secretary and several women were promoted to more junior positions, after Cameron promised that a third of his cabinet would be made up of women.
Cameron also held talks with Conservative backbenchers amid concern that right-wingers in his party could play a disruptive role for the government, particularly over Britain’s EU membership.
The Conservatives won 331 out of the 650 seats in the House of Commons in Thursday’s election, which gave Labour 232, the pro-independence Scottish National Party 56, and the Liberal Democrats just eight.
With the exception of nationalists in Scotland, the election left Britain’s opposition in disarray, following the resignations of Labour leader Ed Miliband and the Liberal Democrat’s Nick Clegg.
The Labour Party is split between centrists and leftists and faces finding a new leader ahead of a national executive meeting tomorrow.
The SNP lawmakers, meanwhile, arrived for their first day in parliament accompanied by the party’s leader Nicola Sturgeon, who has called for sweeping new autonomous powers for Scotland that would go much further than any past promises of devolution.
Sturgeon, who as Scotland’s first minister did not stand for parliament herself, has said that after SNP gains now “it will not be business as usual when it comes to Westminster’s dealing with Scotland”.
MPs will be formally sworn in on Monday and Queen Elizabeth II will deliver her traditional speech at the state opening of parliament on May 27, which will outline the Conservatives’ legislative proposals.
Cameron has promised to hold an EU membership referendum by the end of 2017 and to eliminate Britain’s budget deficit of some £90billion (R1.6-trillion) by 2018/2019.