Liz Truss was officially appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on Tuesday September 6 by Queen Elizabeth II and in the evening unveiled the composition of her government, which is openly focused on diversity. 

For the first time, none of the three main portfolios of the cabinet (Finance, Interior and Foreign Affairs) is thus occupied by a white man.

Kwasi Kwarteng, an ultraliberal at the head of the British Treasury

Kwasi Kwarteng, the 47-year-old son of immigrants from Ghana, is thus promoted to the post of finance minister, at a time when the country is going through its worst economic crisis in decades.

The first black to be appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, this son of immigrants from Ghana who arrived in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, had been Minister for Business, Industry and Energy since January 2021.

He is also a pure liberal, apostle of low taxes and the market economy.

The new finance minister had co-authored in 2012, with other conservatives including Liz Truss, the book "Britannia Unchained", which notably advocated a State with a reduced perimeter and described British workers as "the worst lazy people in the world" - the Prime Minister made waves during her campaign by again evoking a supposed lack of hard work by the British.

Kwasi Kwarteng will first have to implement the tax cuts promised by Liz Truss.

They will make it possible to "put money back in the pockets of people" and businesses to revive an economy on the verge of recession, he assured in a column Monday in the Financial Times.

Suella Braverman, a very right-wing conservative in the British Interior

Inside, Suella Braverman, a 42-year-old former lawyer, is of Indian origin through her parents.

This very conservative elected official will now have to tackle the issue of migrants who arrive illegally on British shores.

For the past year, she has held the little publicized post of legal adviser to the government ("Attorney general"), while the British executive is mired in a legal battle over its plan to send illegal migrants back to Rwanda.

Suella Braverman was one of the first to declare herself a candidate to take the reins of the Conservative Party after the resignation of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Her fierce Euroscepticism and commitment to defending right-wing values ​​have made her popular with party members.

James Cleverly, a loyal but little-known diplomat

By appointing James Cleverly as Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, Liz Truss has chosen a loyal but little-known personality abroad to succeed her in this key post in a turbulent period on the European and international scene.

For this 53-year-old Brexit supporter, from south-east London and whose mother is from Sierra Leone, this appointment as head of British diplomacy is a reward after his unfailing loyalty to Liz Truss during the campaign to appoint Boris Johnson's successor.

But James Cleverly takes office at a difficult time: in addition to the war in Ukraine and increasingly strained relations with China, he will have to manage the confrontation with the European Union over the post-Brexit status of Northern Ireland. . 

This army reservist spent two years as Secretary of State in the Foreign Office, after having held a position in the department which managed Brexit.

On the British political scene, he has gained exposure in the past two months, appointed education minister in early July, after the wave of resignations following the departure of Boris Johnson from 10 Downing Street.

After presenting as one of her priorities the recovery of the public health service, weakened by ten years of austerity and the pandemic, Liz Truss also appointed Therese Coffey, a close friend, Minister of Health with the title of vice -Prime Minister.

Escaping the game of musical chairs, Ben Wallace, very popular, is kept in Defense, a key post because of the war in Ukraine, of which London is one of the main supporters.

With AFP

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