2024-07-06 16:29:43
CTK
Updated 22 hours ago
New British Prime Minister Keir Starmer began appointing a cabinet on Friday. Long-serving member of the Labor Party and former multiple shadow minister Rachel Reeves has become Chancellor of the Exchequer and the first woman to hold the post since its inception in 1221, Sky News reports. Angela Rayner became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Social Affairs.
“I am under no illusions about the scale of the challenges we face,” Reeves said after her appointment, according to the BBC, adding that she could not promise the government’s work would be easy. “We’ve got a long way to go … we’re a new team, we’ve got a new start, so let’s get down to business,” she said. She also wished all young girls and women that today would show them that they should not put limits on their ambitions.
According to Reuters, Britain’s new foreign minister is 51-year-old David Lammy, who held the same role as shadow minister in the opposition and who has more than 20 years of experience in high-level politics. He started as a member of the London Assembly in 2000, and a few months later he reached the House of Commons, where he held positions, among others, in the committee dealing with EU legislation or in the committee managing the Parliament’s art collections. He also worked at the Ministry of Culture in Tony Blair’s government.
“It is the greatest honor of my life to be appointed Foreign Secretary. The world faces enormous challenges, but we will conquer them with the tremendous strength and strengths of Britain,” Lammy wrote on the X network after his appointment.
64-year-old John Healey, a former shadow minister of defense or health, became the defense minister at a time when the British army has tens of percent fewer members after 14 years of Conservative rule and the leadership is waiting for its modernization. Healey told The Guardian this spring that “if Labor goes into government, they have to remember to stay political”. According to him, the way the government works can “dull” the will for change. “Too often people in government office simply read their department’s agenda rather than thinking as government ministers with a sense of what we’re trying to achieve,” Healey said in the spring.
According to Reuters, 55-year-old Yvette Cooper, a Labor member since 1997, who, like Lammy and Healey, has decades of experience in high politics was put in charge of the interior, according to Reuters. In 2015, she also ran for the post of Labor Party leader, but came third with 17 percent in the vote, which was then dominated by Jeremy Corbyn with almost 60 percent.
Wes Streeting became Health Secretary, who noted after his appointment that “the NHS saved his life” and that he was “committed to devoting his life to saving the NHS”. His appointment was also reacted to by the BMA association, which brings together striking doctors and, according to its statement, is ready to negotiate with the government, writes the BBC. Criticism of the record long waiting times for procedures within the NHS was one of the important elements of the Labor campaign.
It is the honour of my life to be appointed Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs.
The world faces huge challenges, but we will navigate them with the UK’s enormous strengths.
We will reconnect Britain for our security and prosperity at home. pic.twitter.com/4DUORlFICj
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) July 5, 2024
Shabana Mahmood is the justice minister, Bridget Phillipson is the education minister, former Labor leader Ed Miliband is the energy minister and Liz Kendall is the work and social affairs minister. Transport was given to Louise Haigh, science to Peter Kyle, culture to Lisa Nandy, agriculture, environment and food to Steve Reed and trade to Jonathan Reynolds.
On Friday, Starmer also appointed the heads of departments that deal with the affairs of the three British countries of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. In that order, they became Hilary Benn, Ian Murray and Jo Stevens.