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Theresa May made a speech in the open air in Downing Street after kissing hands with the Queen as the new Prime Minister. ‘As we leave the European Union,’ she said, ‘we will make Britain a country that works not for a privileged few, but for every one of us.’ In her new cabinet Boris Johnson, the failed contender for the leadership of the party, was made Foreign Secretary, replacing Philip Hammond, who became Chancellor of the Exchequer in place of George Osborne, who was sacked. Amber Rudd became Home Secretary, replacing Mrs May, and Liz Truss became Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor, replacing Michael Gove, who was sacked. She is the first female Lord Chancellor in the millennium-long history of the office. At Education, Justine Greening replaced Nicky Morgan, also sacked. David Davis got a job with the odd title of Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, and Liam Fox was given a parallel Brexiteering role as Secretary of State for International Trade. Jeremy Hunt stayed put at Health, as did Michael Fallon at Defence. There was even a job for Andrea Leadsom at the Department of the Environment. The No. 10 cat, Larry, was observed in a tussle with the Foreign Office cat, Palmerston.
Britain relinquished its six-month presidency of the European Council, due in 2017, as Mrs May held talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President François Hollande of France. Boris Johnson flew to Brussels for talks about Syria with John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, who was attending a formal meeting of EU foreign ministers for the first time. The Archbishop of Canterbury gave a home to a refugee Syrian family in a cottage in the grounds of Lambeth Palace.
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