The country - Boris as PM and a new Cabinet

Yesterday, Boris Johnson won the Conservative Party leadership by 66-33%. Jeremy Hunt, lost, as expected.

Today, Theresa May attended her last PMQs before making her final speech outside the Prime Minister's home, 10 Downing Street. She then went to Buckingham Palace to inform the Queen that she wishes to resign. Boris Johnson, with less than a minute following, attended his first audience with the Queen where she asked him to be the new Prime Minister. The UK's 77th and the Queen's 14th. There was interestingly a brief period of no Prime Minister, where the Queen was ruling on absolute power. Of course this was brief.

Boris Johnson wishes to leave on 31st October. The decision is not his alone. The EU have to budge. The Opposition have to budge. The house of lords have to budge. His own party have to budge. It will be difficult, it will be tough but it will be interesting. A vote of no confidence in the government is likely, and with only a working majority of 2, it is also possible in fact perhaps probable that it will succeed and we do have a general election this year.

The audience with the Queen would have been interesting. For the second time in her 67 year reign, the Queen is possibly going to get involved with politics. Not of her own accord it is important to acknowledge, she still is apolitical. The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, may ask the Queen to suspend parliament over the 31st October to ensure no deal, the default position. Certainly interesting times ahead.

In terms of a cabinet, numerous members have resigned. Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lidington, Minister of the Cabinet Office and De Facto Deputy Prime Minister, Rory Strewart, International Development Secretary, David Guake, Justice Secretary and Penny Mordaunt, the Defence Secretary. The majority of these are not unexpected. The first four I mention our no-deal opposes and thus it will not be possible for them to serve under Boris Johnson who does not oppose that option. Penny Mordaunt is a surprise. She is a strong brexiteer, but does not wish to serve under Boris.

The cabinet comprises of 23 members and 5 were already out of the picture before Boris could make up his decisions. Liam Fox seems to be the first announced casaulty. Again this is a surprise as Liam Fox was one of the major brexiteers in the 2016 referendum. He did however support Theresa May's deal, something Boris Johnson wishes to completely abandon. Liam Fox's sacking shows that no one is safe, not even the brexiteers. Speculation now heavily faces on who will get a job and who will get the sack. Jeremy Hunt is one of those that is most interesting. There is speculation that he has been offered deference secretary, the seventh highest position in the cabinet and prized by many, howevre it is still a demotion from foreign secretary that he held under Theresa May.

I will do a further post on the cabinet and the comings and goings in the future.

Edit: Penny Mordaunt did not resign. She was fired as have many at the time of edit (5.40pm GMT)