This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/16/world/europe/prime-minister-cameron-shuffles-british-cabinet.html

The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
A More Diverse Cabinet as British Premier Completes Shuffle British Prime Minister Reshuffles Cabinet to Make It More Diverse
(about 5 hours later)
LONDON — With less than 10 months until the next general election, Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron, on Tuesday finished up a broad government shuffle, promoting several women and shaking up a ministerial team that has been criticized as unrepresentative of the country it governs. LONDON — Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain shook up his government on Tuesday in an effort to present a fresher, less abrasive and more diverse face to voters with the next general election just 10 months away.
Among the surprises were moves for William Hague, the foreign secretary, and Michael Gove, the minister of education, who both will stay in the government but with lower-profile positions. Mr. Hague, a former leader of the Conservative Party, will give up his seat in Parliament after the next elections in 2015. Mr. Cameron’s Conservative Party is heading into the election campaign facing an array of challenges. Opinion polls suggest that the election will be close and unpredictable. Apparently with that in mind, Mr. Cameron revamped his cabinet more thoroughly than expected on Tuesday, dismissing or moving several prominent men and promoting a number of women.
With several women appointed to senior positions vacated by men, British newspapers have called the shuffle a cull of the “male, pale and stale.” Mr. Cameron shifted one of his most divisive colleagues — the education secretary, Michael Gove — to a less prominent role. A secretary who sometimes seemed to revel in being a pain to teachers’ unions will move to a Conservative party post in the House of Commons, part of what analysts said was a concerted effort to soften the party’s image.
The opposition Labour Party has long attacked Mr. Cameron for leading a “cabinet of millionaires” and, when a senior minister, Maria Miller, quit earlier this year she was replaced by Sajid Javid, the son of an immigrant bus driver. By contrast, Mr. Cameron sent a tougher message on relations with the European Union by appointing Philip Hammond as foreign secretary. Mr. Hammond has said that he would vote to leave the 28-nation bloc if Britain could not negotiate better membership terms.
The promotion of more women on Tuesday seemed designed to follow the same path by making the Conservative Party’s component of Britain’s coalition government appear more representative of the nation. The British economy has rebounded recently after years of recession and austerity, but opinion polls suggest that many voters still feel worse off than before the financial crisis. Most polls now show the Conservatives running only slightly behind the opposition Labour Party, giving Mr. Cameron reason to hope that he can still win another term. He is governing now in a coalition with the centrist Liberal Democrats.
Among the fresh female faces in the cabinet were Nicky Morgan, a treasury minister and Liz Truss, a 38-year-old who entered Parliament in 2010 and who will become environment secretary. Mr. Cameron kept George Osborne as chancellor of the Exchequer, with the central task of managing the economy, but elsewhere in his cabinet he freshened the faces — if not the policies — of a government that Labour says is led by millionaires out of touch with ordinary Britons.
One analyst said that Mr. Cameron was changing the public face, if not the policies, of his party. Mr. Cameron, who was educated at Eton College, one of the country’s most exclusive schools, began trying to redress that perception earlier this year when he filled a senior ministerial vacancy by appointing Sajid Javid, the son of an immigrant bus driver. In the shake-up on Tuesday, he appeared to stay on that path.
“In order to demonstrate a more friendly and modern Conservative face, Cameron has brought more women, regional accents and ethnic minorities into the cabinet, giving the impression the Conservative frontbench is more in touch with ordinary voters, and not the elites that are the Conservative’s oft-assumed natural constituency,” wrote Mujtaba Rahman in an analysis for Eurasia Group, a consulting firm. “In order to demonstrate a more friendly and modern Conservative face, Cameron has brought more women, regional accents and ethnic minorities into the cabinet, giving the impression the Conservative front-bench is more in touch with ordinary voters, and not the elites that are the Conservative’s oft-assumed natural constituency,” Mujtaba Rahman wrote in an analysis for Eurasia Group, a consulting firm.
At the same time Mr. Cameron struck a harder note on ties with the European Union, an issue over which he faces criticism from the right and an electoral challenge of the U.K. Independence Party, which wants to leave the 28-nation bloc. Nicky Morgan, a Treasury minister, will be promoted to education minister to replace Mr. Gove, who is becoming the Conservative party’s chief whip, responsible for keeping its ranks together in the House of Commons.
Mr. Hague is succeeded as foreign secretary by Philip Hammond, who moves from the post of defense secretary and who once said that he would vote to leave the European bloc if there were no significant change in Britain’s relationship with it. If re-elected next year Mr. Cameron plans to renegotiate British ties with the union then call a referendum in 2017 on whether to stay. Charles Lewington, a former director of communications for the Conservative Party, wrote in a blog commentary that Mr. Gove’s move was “a triumph for the pollsters,” who argued that his combative style was “deterring women voters,” who appear in polls to be drifting toward Labour.
Meanwhile Mr. Gove will become chief whip, a back-room post responsible for discipline among Conservative lawmakers in Parliament. Mr. Gove has been one of the most controversial cabinet ministers, and his leadership of the education department has provoked fierce criticism from teaching unions among others. On European policy, Mr. Cameron has felt growing pressure from the right, especially from Britain's Independence Party, which wants to quit the European Union. Mr. Cameron has steadily hardened his position in response, promising last year that if he were re-elected he would renegotiate Britain’s membership in the union and then hold a referendum on it in 2017.
In a posting on his company’s website, Charles Lewington, a former director of communications for the Conservative Party, described Mr. Gove’s move as “a triumph for the pollsters” who argued that his combative style at the education department was “deterring women voters”. Mr. Lewington wrote that in Mr. Hammond, Britain would have a foreign secretary “who is prepared to say we should quit the European Union if we don’t get the concessions we want.” Mr. Hammond succeeds William Hague, a former party leader who is thought to have softened his position on Europe. Mr. Hague will retain a a lower-profile cabinet post until next year and then retire from Parliament.
With Mr. Hammond in his new post, Britain has a foreign secretary “who is prepared to say we should quit the European Union if we don’t get the concessions we want,” Mr. Lewington said. Another veteran, Kenneth Clarke, a minister without portfolio, is departing in the shake-up. His positive views on the European Union may have prevented him from ever leading the party.
Among the high-profile casualties was Kenneth Clarke, a veteran cabinet minister, whose positive views about the European Union may have prevented him from ever leading the party. Britain’s seat on the European Commission, the union’s executive body, is going to Jonathan Hill, a low-key politician who has been the leader of the House of Lords. His appointment was something of a surprise — when a Conservative website asked him in June about the possibility, he replied with a brief burst of French: “Non, non, non.”
For the post of Britain’s representative to the European Commission, the executive of the European Union, Mr. Cameron nominated Jonathan Hill, leader of the House of Lords and a low-key figure in the unelected parliamentary chamber.
That avoids the need for a politically risky parliamentary special election that would have been needed had Mr. Cameron nominated an elected lawmaker. However Mr. Hill, once an aide to Prime Minister John Major, may struggle to secure a powerful portfolio in Brussels if he is seen as not being a political heavyweight.
His nomination caught some by surprise given that, when asked once about the possibility of becoming European commissioner by the ConservativeHome website, he rejected the idea.
“Non, non, non” he replied in a brief burst of French.