Shock appointment: Boris Johnson is the new Foreign Secretary

The news channels were agog last night at the announcement that Prime Minister May has appointed Boris Johnson Foreign Secretary (what would be ‘foreign minister/minister for foreign affairs’ in Malta).

It’s the same with many of the newspapers. The Mirror has a particularly funny front page this morning: a picture of Johnson decked out with Union flags, dangling off that famous cable, with the bold headline ‘DEAR WORLD…SORRY’.

Philip Hammond is the new chancellor of the exchequer (George Osborne returns to the back bench along with Cameron, who retains his seat).

The staunchly anti-EU David Davis has been appointed ‘Brexit Minister’, and will handle the UK’s negotiations for exit. Davis, 67, lost to David Cameron in the Conservative Party leadership race in 2005.

What this means, of course, is that Prime Minister May is determined to go ahead with pulling the UK out of the EU. Interestingly, she did not mention either the European Union or Brexit in her first speech outside the world’s most famous front door yesterday. She spoke largely of national politics.

The appointment of Johnson was widely criticised and mocked. It has eclipsed the other appointments.

The United Kingdom’s brand-new foreign secretary