After Boris Johnson’s farewell speech, which may not have said his last word, his Conservative Party successor, Liz Truss, took office as head of the United Kingdom on Tuesday, September 6.
She gave her first speech, quoted by The Guardian, identifying in particular three priorities for its action: “I will put Britain back to work”; “I will take action this week to meet energy bills and to secure our future energy supply”; “I will make sure people can make appointments with doctors and get other health services they need.”
“Coming Out of the Storm”
In the eyes of the leftist newspaper, this speech seemed “boring and hollow”. “It all seemed very cliche and boilerplate. There was nothing personal, nothing original, nothing to suggest she could bond emotionally with people. […]. It sounded like an absolutely ordinary speech from a second-class politician, not from a brand-new Prime Minister.”
According to a columnist for the conservative newspaper The Daily Telegraph, “Liz Truss could not have been clearer: she intends to govern on the right”. Paying tribute to her predecessor Boris Johnson, the new leader reaffirmed the need, according to her, to lower taxes to encourage growth. It was “exactly the same speech” than the one she had sent to her own Conservative party the day before. She also insisted on the “storm” that the country was going through, while ensuring:
“I am confident that together we can weather the storm.”
“Cabinet of legs”
After this speech, Liz Truss named her new cabinet. With a strong tendency: to separate from those who had supported Rishi Sunak, his rival for the post of Prime Minister. “Truss eliminates Sunak backers and assembles a ‘cabinet of pals’”, headlined the left-wing newspaper The Independent Tuesday evening, using the expression of a former adviser to a member of Boris Johnson’s government.
The Minister of Justice and Deputy Prime Minister of Boris Johnson Dominic Raab, his Minister of Transport Grant Shapps, that of Health, Steve Barclay, and that of the Environment, George Eustice, all supporters of Rishi Sunak, thus leave the firm.
Among the major appointments of this government, that of James Cleverly as Minister of Foreign Affairs. He had been Secretary of State under the authority of Liz Truss when the latter was at Foreign Affairs, specifies the Guardian.
Thérèse Coffey, “a close friend of Liz Truss [qui] was Minister of Labor and Pensions”, according to Guardian, is “promoted to Minister of Health and Deputy Prime Minister”. Kwasi Kwarteng, former Minister for Business, is promoted to Chancellor of the Exchequer (equivalent to Minister of Finance). “He is also a close friend of Liz Truss”, note the newspaper on the left. Suella Braverman becomes Home Secretary, “a remarkable promotion” for an ex-opponent who called to support Truss and who “shares Truss’ radical line and his support for a confrontational posture towards the EU.”
These appointments sparked an unusual display of discontent. Ex-Secretary of State for Veterans Affairs Johnny Mercer says in a public letter that he was fired by Liz Truss so that she could reward one of his supporters, reports The Guardian. “That’s what members of the government think when they are fired by a new prime minister, comments on the newspaper, but normally they don’t say it in public.”