As expected throughout the pointless Conservative Party ‘leadership contest’ of the past month, Liz Truss has today succeeded Boris Johnson as Prime Minister and is engaged in forming her first Cabinet.
This evening she confirmed that the three great ‘offices of state’ below the premiership – Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary – will for the first time in our history all be held by non-Whites.
Kwasi Kwarteng – the son of Ghanaian immigrants – is to be Chancellor of the Exchequer with the task of repairing the UK’s battered post-pandemic finances, in the context of a new cost-of-living crisis partly produced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He will be the fourth non-White Chancellor in succession, his predecessors being Iraqi Kurd Nadhim Zahawi, Indian Hindu Rishi Sunak, and Pakistani ex-Muslim Sajid Javid.
James Cleverly – son of a British father and an African mother from Sierra Leone – is to be Foreign Secretary; the first non-White to hold this post.
And Suella Braverman – a Buddhist born to Indians who immigrated to the UK in the 1960s from Kenya and Mauritius – will be Home Secretary, succeeding the Indian Hindu Priti Patel.
This – we remind readers – is the modern Conservative Party, not some woke-crazed gang of socialists.
H&D will report further during today and tomorrow on the composition of Truss’s new cabinet. In particular we are concerned by rumours that Tom Tugendhat – whose antecedents were discussed recently by our assistant editor – is about to be given a senior ministerial post overseeing the very same intelligence and security agencies that for decades reported on his grandfather’s alleged subversive activities and connections.
The new issue of the magazine takes a longer term view of the state of the Conservative Party, and the prospects for a racial nationalist revival across Europe. This edition is being printed today and will be advertised here very soon.
Tuesday night update: Among the departures from government, many H&D readers will be sorry to see the sacking of Johnny Mercer who had returned to the post of Minister for Veterans’ Affairs two months ago, having held similar responsibilities during 2019-21. Mercer was a loyal supporter of ex-servicemen who disgracefully faced politically motivated prosecutions for doing their duty in anti-terrorist operations. We hope that the new minister will be similarly determined to resist pro-Republican lobbyists and apologists for terrorism.
It is disappointing to hear that Penny Mordaunt turned down the post of Northern Ireland Secretary, which is arguably the most important job in Cabinet right now, at this most crucial point in the history of the Union. We hope that Chris Heaton-Harris who was eventually given the job will stand up to Dublin and Brussels: the ‘Northern Ireland Protocol’ must be ditched, or the Brexit that Heaton-Harris fought for will be seen as a disastrous loss of sovereignty rather than a reclaiming of sovereignty.
As Ms Truss said of President Macron: “the jury’s out”!