London: New UK Prime Minister Theresa May, who took office on Wednesday with a mandate to take Britain out of the European Union, has announced the senior members of her cabinet. So far, May has chosen a mix of those from the Leave and Remain campaigns.
Here is a look at those first cabinet members announced.
Boris Johnson, foreign minister
The most surprising of May's appointments, Boris Johnson is the flamboyant former mayor of London. He was a leading figure in the victorious Leave campaign in Britain's European Union membership referendum last month, but has never been a byword for diplomacy.
He is well-known for his provocative newspaper columns and undiplomatic language. In a May interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Johnson said 2,000 years of European history had been characterized by repeated attempts to unify Europe under a single government.
"Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically," Johnson was quoted as saying.
Johnson, 52, who has not previously held a cabinet post, will have to address questions about the country's role in the world after its exit from the EU and shape British policy toward key areas like Syria, Iran and Russia. The United States said it was looking forward to working with him.
Shortly after being named to the position, Johnson assured the United States it would be at the "front of the queue."
David Davis, chief Brexit negotiator
David Davis, a senior Conservative lawmaker who was beaten by former prime minister David Cameron in the party's 2005 leadership election contest, was appointed to the new role of secretary of state for exiting the European Union. Davis, 67, a strong supporter of Brexit, has said Britain should take its time before formally starting the divorce process by triggering Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty.
"The negotiating strategy has to be properly designed, and there is some serious consultation to be done first," he wrote in a blog published Monday.
Making the case for Brexit in a speech in May, he said: "The first calling point of the U.K.'s negotiator in the time immediately after Brexit will not be Brussels, it will be Berlin, to strike the deal: absolute access for German cars and industrial goods, in exchange for a sensible deal on everything else.
"Similar deals would be reached with other key EU nations. France would want to protect the £3 billion of food and wine it exports to the U.K. We have seen the sort of political pressure French farmers are willing to bring to bear when their livelihoods are threatened, and France will also be holding a general election in 2017."
Before the referendum, he said to the Daily Telegraph, "So what would the U.K. look like outside the EU? Free trade with the EU, freer trade with the rest of the world. We would be free of EU government and bureaucracy, but would opt in, as others do, to those programs that are in our best interest. In short, it would be something new, something better, something in the interests of the U.K. and of the EU."
Philip Hammond, finance minister
Foreign secretary since 2014, Philip Hammond, 60, has previously been transport secretary and was defence secretary for three years from 2011. Hammond will have to manage an economy that risks sliding into recession after last month's vote to leave the EU, and set new budget goals after his predecessor George Osborne abandoned his aim to run a budget surplus by 2020.
One of Hammond's first tasks will be to decide whether he can afford to cut taxes or spend more to steer Britain's economy through the aftermath of the Brexit vote.
Amber Rudd, interior minister
Amber Rudd, 52, a former British energy minister, will play a key role in the country's approach to immigration, the issue which is widely believed to have swayed the EU vote to Leave.
Rudd, who succeeds May in charge of the Home Office, became a lawmaker in 2010 and served as parliamentary private secretary to former finance minister George Osborne from 2012 to 2013. She later joined the department for energy and climate change, where she was promoted to minister in 2015. She was a high-profile supporter of the Remain camp in the referendum.
Liam Fox, international trade
Liam Fox will be in charge of forging new international trade deals after Britain voted to leave the European Union. The 54-year-old has previously held a string of senior positions in government. He was defence minister from 2010 to 2011 and is a former minister in the Foreign Office.
Fox was the first of five Tory leadership candidates to be eliminated in the race to replace Cameron which May won.
Michael Fallon, defence minister
Scotsman Michael Fallon, 64, has been defence minister since July 2014 and has forged a reputation as a safe pair of hands. He is a former vice-chairman of the Conservative Party. He has also served in the business and energy departments and on the treasury select committee.
