She appointed Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor or treasurer, a role that will be crucial as the country grapples with the cost of living crisis. On Tuesday night, he tweeted that it was the “honor of a lifetime” to be appointed and promised to announce “an emergency package of support to help pay for energy.”
Kwarteng’s parents immigrated to the UK from Ghana and were the first black British to hold the position. A decade ago, he wrote a book exploring the rule of the British Empire in former colonies such as Iraq, Kashmir, Burma, Sudan, Nigeria and Hong Kong.
Truss’ new foreign secretary is James Cleverly, a mixed-race reservist whose mother is from Sierra Leone and his father is from Wiltshire, about 90 miles outside London.He has public speaking About being bullied as biracial and speaking at a Conservative Party conference on how the party is winning over black voters.
Cleverly will serve as Britain’s top diplomat at a time when relations between the UK and the 27-nation EU are volatile.
The new Home Secretary is Suella Braverman, whose parents came to the UK from Kenya and Mauritius in the 1960s.
The three names have been leaked in recent days, unsurprisingly, in part because each was a staunch ally of Truss during her winning leadership race.
The diversity of ministerial appointments has won praise in some quarters, in a country where members of the Conservative Party – about 0.3% of the UK population – are typically older, wealthier, 95% white and politically more Britain is more to the right. (Government figures show that nearly 85% of people living in England and Wales consider themselves white.)
“The new cabinet is yet another reminder that people from all backgrounds can go further within the Conservative Party,” Samuel Kasum, Johnson’s former race adviser, told the Guardian.
Not everyone seemed convinced. The headline in the right-wing Daily Mail tabloid tragically declared: “Liz Truss puts the finishing touches on a diverse new government: White men have no place in vital state office.”
Her predecessor, Johnson, also had a fairly diverse lineup of senior ministers. Home Secretary Priti Patel is the first Indian-born British MP to hold the appointment, while Johnson’s three prime ministers include two South Asian men and one of Kurdish background. Truss is Johnson’s foreign secretary.
Some have pointed out that despite their ethnicity, Trus’ top appointee may belong to the party’s right wing. Kwarteng had pushed for the UK to leave the EU quickly, while Braverman said schools might be able to legally ignore preferred pronouns for non-gender and transgender students.
Truss, 47, has pledged to cut taxes and increase borrowing to fund spending even as inflation soars above 10% and the Bank of England predicts a prolonged recession by the end of the year. Truss also pledged to reduce illegal immigration as a key priority, ensuring that the policy of deporting asylum seekers entering the UK by boat to Rwanda continues.
The centre-left opposition Labour party has more racially and gender-diverse lawmakers, but they hold a smaller share of the party’s top jobs. Labour has never elected a woman leader; the Conservatives, by contrast, have three female prime ministers.
Labour politician Shasta Aziz says Responding to news of Truss’ possible appointment on Twitter, saying “It’s not enough to be a black or minority politician or cabinet member in this country. That’s not what representation is about. It’s really symbolism.” “
Ahead of the leadership vote, Aziz wrote an essay criticizing the Conservative Party for failing to represent the concerns of ordinary people.
“Despite the talk of diversity and inclusion, the Conservative Party candidate of colour and all those running for the campaign support the party’s right-wing immigration policy, which includes deporting asylum seekers from the UK and having their asylum claims processed. flying them to Rwanda,” she wrote last month.
Labour MP Martha de Cordova Say While Truss’s cabinet is expected to be diverse, “it will be one of the farthest to the right in living memory, with a political agenda that will attack the rights of working people, especially the rights of minorities.”
Karla Adam and William Booth contributed to this report.