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UK Chancellor Sajid Javid quits after Boris Johnson orders him to fire advisers

Sputniknews | Updated: 2020-02-17 10:28

Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid leaves his home in London, Britain Feb 14, 2020. [Photo/Agencies]

Boris Johnson became Prime Minister in July last year and led the Conservative Party to a comprehensive victory in December’s General Election. He postponed a Cabinet reshuffle until after Britain left the European Union on 31 January.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sajid Javid, has quit as Boris Johnson reshuffles his Cabinet.

Javid resigned on Thursday, 13 February, after the Prime Minister asked him to sack all his advisers. He is the first Chancellor to leave before presenting a Budget since Lord Randolph Churchill in 1886.

Javid has been replaced by Rishi Sunak, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, who has been promoted.

​Javid's departure follows months of tension between the Chancellor and Johnson's special adviser, Dominic Cummings.

In August last year one of Javid's advisers, Sonia Khan, was escorted from Downing Street by police after her security clearance was withdrawn.

​Javid - who ran for the leadership of the party last year - reportedly "voiced his anger" to Boris Johnson about the manner of her departure.

The Chancellor's departure even caught the Leader of the Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, on the hop.

During business questions in Parliament Labour MP Jeff Smith asked him: "Can we have a statement on the surprising news that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has been sacked?"

Rees-Mogg was clearly unaware Javid had resigned and replied: "The honorable gentleman is ahead of me on the news cycle."

Sunak told reporters outside the Treasury he was "delighted" to be appointed Chancellor but declined to reply when a journalist asked him if he would be the prime minister's "puppet".​

Boris Johnson has also fired Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith only five weeks after he helped broker the return of power-sharing at Stormont.

Smith’s departure has been greeted with bemusement in Northern Ireland, where he was seen as a safe pair of hands who had got to know his brief well.

Who else was sacked?

Johnson has also fired Andrea Leadsom, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, hours after she had expressed her disappointment at the Prime Minister’s decision to go ahead with HS2, which runs straight through her Northamptonshire constituency.

Leadsom has been replaced by Alok Sharma, who will also be the minister in charge of the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow later this year.

Sharma had previously been International Development Secretary and that role has gone to Anne-Marie Trevelyan, who has been promoted from being a junior armed forces minister.

There had been rumors Dominic Cummings wanted the prime minister to scrap the Department for International Development - which hands out foreign aid - and merge it with the Foreign Office.

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