London, (Asian independent) Rishi Sunak has made the first appointments of his reshuffle by keeping Jeremy Hunt as UK chancellor and appointing Dominic Raab as deputy prime minister and justice secretary, after the departure of nearly a dozen cabinet ministers, the media reported.
The new prime minister also re-appointed James Cleverly as foreign secretary, Ben Wallace as defence secretary and Suella Braverman as home secretary, just days after she left the role for breaching the ministerial code with an email leak, The Guardian reported.
The appointments are a sign Sunak is attempting to reach out across the party, given Wallace and Cleverly were prominent supporters of Johnson, while Braverman is influential on the party’s Eurosceptic right, The Guardian reported.
The decision not to have a change of personnel in No 11 will be viewed as an attempt by Sunak not to upset the markets after weeks of turbulence over the Conservatives’ economic plans under Liz Truss’s administration.
The pound rose to its highest level since before Truss’s mini-budget last month after Sunak’s appointment as prime minister.
Raab returns to the roles he held under Johnson, as deputy prime minister and justice secretary.
Simon Hart, another cabinet minister from the Johnson era, has been brought back in to restore party discipline as chief whip.
Sunak also appointed Nadhim Zahawi, another key Johnson supporter, as party chairman, and his own key ally, Oliver Dowden, as chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster — a problem-solving role in the Cabinet Office.
Grant Shapps, the former transport secretary who filled in as home secretary for less than a week, is moving to be business secretary, The Guardian reported.
Several senior figures quit the government on Tuesday, with Jacob Rees Mogg stepping down as business secretary and Brandon Lewis resigning as justice secretary.
Sunak sacked Chloe Smith as work and pensions secretary and the under-fire Wendy Morton as chief whip.
