Cameron promotes women in his new cabinet

UK PRIME Minister David Cameron has announced that London Mayor Boris Johnson will take part in meetings of his new cabinet and Sajid Javid will be business secretary as he promotes Amber Rudd and Priti Patel to senior government posts.

“Boris Johnson will be attending my political cabinet,” Cameron said yesterday on Twitter. “As promised, he will devote his attention to his final year as mayor of London.”

Cameron is appointing his first all-Conservative cabinet after unexpectedly winning a majority in Thursday’s general election, meaning he no longer has to rely on support from the Liberal Democrats. He’s so far named five women who will attend cabinet meetings. Rudd becomes energy secretary and Patel will take over as employment minister.

The prime minister’s appointments show a preference for continuity, with George Osborne, Theresa May, Philip Hammond and Michael Fallon retaining their posts as chancellor of the exchequer, home secretary, foreign secretary and defence secretary, respectively. Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith and Leader of the House of Lords Tina Stowell have all also kept their posts.

Javid, who was culture secretary before the election, takes over the business brief from Liberal Democrat Vince Cable, who lost his seat in parliament last week.

A former head of global credit trading at Deutsche Bank and vice-president of Chase Manhattan Bank, Javid also served as a Treasury minister after being elected to parliament in 2010.

Rudd was previously a junior minister in the energy department. Patel was exchequer secretary to the Treasury before the election.

Johnson is the favourite with bookmakers to succeed Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister if Cameron keeps to his pledge to step down partway through his term in office. – Bloomberg