Rishi Sunak Rearranges the Deck Chairs
United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reshuffled his cabinet Monday, and Britons can be forgiven if they don’t learn his new ministers’ names. They might not be around long. Changing ministers at this late date is unlikely to change the bleak Tory prospects in an election expected next year.
The reshuffle brought two major personnel changes. One is the firing of Suella Braverman as home secretary with responsibility for policing and immigration. Her sins are said to include publishing a controversial column last week in the Times of London (which shares ownership with this newspaper) criticizing pro-Palestine marches in London, and failing to stop illegal immigration across the English Channel.
The other is the hiring of former Prime Minister David Cameron as foreign secretary. Mr. Cameron resigned as PM after his campaign to stay in the European Union failed in the 2016 Brexit referendum.
He squandered a parliamentary majority he won a year earlier. Both are puzzling decisions. Ms.
Braverman’s description of the pro-Palestine protests in London and elsewhere as “hate marches" is blunt but seems to resonate with Mr. Sunak’s Conservative Party base. Tory turmoil helps the opposition Labour Party, which until Monday was the leader in internal turmoil over the Israel-Hamas war and protests.
Mr. Cameron is a tribune of the big-government conservatism that has left the Tories in a rut after 13 years in power. His history of boosterism over business links to China and his 2010 description of Gaza as “a prison camp" make him especially questionable as a foreign minister given the international challenges facing Britain now.
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