Prime Minister May has sacked Justice Minister Michael Gove while several other ministers have resigned. May's cabinet is set to contain record numbers of women, plus a mix of "remain" and "leave" campaigners.
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Great Britain's new Prime Minister Theresa May continued an unusually extensive cabinet reshuffle on Thursday, including getting rid of Justice Minister Michael Gove.
Gove was a leading campaigner for the Brexit alongside newly appointed Foreign Minister Boris Johnson. Following the vote, Gove scuppered any prime ministerial ambitions Johnson might have held by announcing his own candidacy and declaring Johnson unfit for the top job. In the ensuing leadership contest, however, Gove could not even secure second place and the chance to challenge May, losing out to long-shot candidate Andrea Leadsom.
Many Conservative MPs saw Gove in the back-stabbing role of Brutus - Johnson alluded to Shakespeare's Julius Caesar play several times when announcing he wouldn't run for the party leadership - and so supported Leadsom or May instead.
On Twitter, Gove wished the "best of luck to the new government."
The new prime minister also fired Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, a "remain" supporter who had backed Gove's leadership campaign. Another Gove supporter and fellow "leave" campaigner John Whittingdale was also sacked from his post as culture secretary on Thursday.
May's cabinet cleanout
Despite reportedly being offered a position on May's new cabinet, Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers turned down the new post and resigned. During the EU referendum, Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU.
Another prominent cabinet member Stephen Crabb resigned from his post as well on Thursday, saying the decision was "in the best interests of my family." The announcement came just days after media reports seemingly unveiling text messages between Crabb, who is married, and another woman.
Health Minister Jeremy Hunt and Defense Minister Michael Fallon, both remain campaigners, retained their positions.
Women in top positions
The winners in May's new cabinet appear to be Brexit supporters and women. Eight female ministers have been appointed to posts so far, including Elizabeth Truss who became justice minister, replacing Gove.
Another top position was filled by Amber Rudd who will now take over May's old as interior minister.
Two new positions designed to help navigate the UK's exit from the EU went to right-wing euroskeptics David Davis and Liam Fox. Davis is responsible for negotiating the terms of the UK's EU exit, Fox is responsible for forging international trade deals elsewhere.
On Wednesday, May placed Philip Hammond at the economic helm as the new finance minister. Hammond therefore claims what's broadly perceived as the second-most powerful job in British politics, after May's. He will move in next door to the PM, at 11 Downing Street.
However, it was Boris Johnson's appointment as foreign minister that dominated international headlines, drawing conflicting reactions around the world, with US state department spokesman Mark Toner saying the US would always work with the UK while stifling a laugh upon finding out about Johnson's appointment.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, however, had harsh words and called the former London mayor's behavior during and after the referendum campaign as "irresponsible".
rs/msh (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)
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Brexit club
The pro-Brexit campaigner will now be making frequent appearances in Brussels. The euroskeptic wasn't always so adverse to European integration, whatever his EU opinions. In 1997, he said: "I'm rather pro-European ... I certainly want a European community where one can go off and scoff croissants, drink delicious coffee, learn foreign languages and generally make love to foreign women."
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'Crass and tasteless'
Guests at a gay rights event in 2013 walked out in disgust after Johnson said the following about gay marriage: "I’m delighted that as of this autumn any young man will be able to take his chum up the Arsenal ... and marry him." Labour's Angela Eagle, the first female MP to come out while in office, said that Johnson's "crass and tasteless remarks" only served to undermine the gay community.
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Hitler jokes? Nein, danke
Earlier this summer Johnson struck again, comparing the EU's aims to Hitler's. Speaking to UK newspaper "The Telegraph," Johnson said European history had seen repeated attempts to rediscover the "golden age of peace and prosperity under the Romans." "Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically. The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods," he said.
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'Special relationship'
Born in New York, Johnson has upset the "special relationship" with the US more than once. In April, Johnson faced huge criticism after recounting the story of a bust of Winston Churchill being moved from the White House to the British Embassy. In the British tabloid "The Sun," Johnson asked whether the move was "a symbol of the part-Kenyan President's ancestral dislike of the British Empire."
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Only one laughing
But Johnson is no stranger to making derogatory comments. In his 2002 column, he described how the Queen had "come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies." Commenting on then-Prime Minister Tony Blair's trip to Congo, Johnson wrote how "the tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief."
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Woes with the West Bank
In November last year, Palestinian authorities canceled Johnson's visit after he said a boycott of Israeli goods was "completely crazy" and supported by "corduroy-jacketed, snaggle-toothed, lefty academics in the UK." Officials said Johnson's comments risked creating protests if he visited the West Bank, and accused him of adopting a "misinformed and disrespectful" pro-Israeli stance.
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Bull in a china shop
In 2008, Johnson even managed to offend his hosts at the ceremonial passing of the Olympic flag from Beijing to London. "I say this respectfully to our Chinese hosts, who have excelled so magnificently at Ping-pong," Johnson said. "Ping-pong was invented on the dining tables of England in the 19th century and it was called Wiff-waff!"
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No Shakespeare
Johnson won a £1,000 prize in May for penning a poem about Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which he referred to the Turkish prime minister as a "wankerer," rhyming with the Turkish capital, Ankara - a far cry from Johnson arguing that Turkey should join the EU in 2006. The competition was launched after Erdogan sued German comedian Jan Böhmermann, whose poem accused him of having sex with a goat.