British PM May continues shake up of ministerial team
9 Jan 2018 5:47 PM GMT
London: British Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday continued the shake up of her ministerial team for the second day by promoting several junior ministers including Indian-origin MP Alok Sharma, even as two senior ministers refused to be moved to their new posts.
The prime minister turned her attention to the lower ranks after a Cabinet reshuffle on Monday that descended into chaos when Jeremy Hunt refused to be moved from his job as health secretary and Justine Greening quit rather than move from education to work and pensions.
The junior ministerial changes were billed in advance as an opportunity for May to clear out some older ministers and promote newer MPs, after Monday's moves left the Cabinet still overwhelmingly male and white. However, the first tranche of ministers who entered No 10 to be promoted were all men. Sharma went from housing to employment. Jo Johnson, the younger brother of Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, was promoted to minister of state at the department for transport and minister for London.
The prisons minister Sam Gyimah replaced Johnson as minister for higher education.
Rory Stewart became a minister of state in the justice department, moving from international development, while Stephen Barclay was made a minister of state at health, moving from the treasury.
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