LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Sunday she
would announce changes to her ministerial team soon, with media reports
saying her foreign, finance, interior and Brexit ministers would keep
their jobs in a reshuffle starting on Monday.
After running a poorly received campaign at a national election last
year that badly damaged her authority, May is leading a delicately
balanced minority government tasked with delivering Britain’s exit from
the European Union. She is also under pressure to tackle a range of
domestic policy problems.
May said ministerial changes were
necessary following the departure of her long-standing ally and de-facto
deputy prime minister, Damian Green, whom she forced to resign in
December after he made misleading statements about pornography found
pornography on computers in his parliamentary office.
“Obviously,
Damian Green’s departure before Christmas means that some changes do
have to be made, and I will be making some changes,” she told the BBC in
an interview recorded on Saturday for broadcast on Sunday.
May said the reshuffle would come soon, but did not give any further details.
The
Sunday Times said foreign minister Boris Johnson, finance minister
Philip Hammond, interior minister Amber Rudd and Brexit minister David
Davis would not lose their jobs in the reshuffle. The report did not
cite any sources.
May is also expected to announce a new first secretary of state to
replace Green -- an important post with responsibility for maintaining
unity in a cabinet still divided over the best approach to Brexit.
Monday’s
edition of the Daily Telegraph reported May would create a new post to
provide regular updates to the Cabinet on preparations for leaving the
EU without a trade deal -- an outcome the government says it wants to
avoid, but is nevertheless drawing up contingency plans for.
The
Sunday Times said changes were aimed at bringing younger women and
non-white lawmakers into the Cabinet in attempt to appeal to improve the
party’s image and regenerate support among voters.
May also said
she was abandoning plans to give lawmakers a vote on overturning a ban
on fox hunting with dogs -- one of several promises she made during last
year’s snap election which went down badly with voters.
May
earned plaudits in Europe and at home in December by securing progress
in the complicated process of leaving the European Union, but her
government has been criticized in recent days for rising rail fares and
postponing hospital operations.
The Conservative Party is
running neck and neck with the left-wing Labour Party in opinion polls
and has been split by differences about what kind of relationship
Britain should seek with the EU after it leaves the bloc in 2019.
The
Sunday Times said the ministers who were expected to lose their jobs or
move to different roles included Conservative Party chairman Patrick
McLoughlin, education minister Justine Greening, business minister Greg
Clark and Andrea Leadsom, the government’s leader in the lower house of
parliament.