Johnson reshuffles Cabinet to steady ship

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's attempts to move the political agenda on from several weeks of negative headlines have got off to a mixed start after more criticism of appointments in his latest Cabinet reshuffle.

Following on from the announcement of police investigations into repeated flouting of lockdown rules at Downing Street, Johnson has also been heavily criticized for comments he made last week about the work of opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer in his former role as director of public prosecutions.

On Monday, Starmer had to be put in a police car outside Parliament for his own safety, after he was surrounded by a mob of protesters, some of them repeating Johnson's discredited allegations.

In this week's reshuffle, former Conservative chief whip Mark Spencer was appointed leader of the House of Commons, but the BBC reports that some Conservative members of Parliament are unhappy at the move, as Spencer is facing accusations of Islamophobia toward another Conservative MP, Nusrat Ghani.

In an article last month, Ghani alleged that when she was sacked as transport minister in 2020, she was told that her "Muslim woman minister status was making colleagues feel uncomfortable".

Spencer then identified himself as the person who had sacked her, and said that he utterly rejected her version of events. An investigation is now being carried out, with a Downing Street spokesperson saying it was right that it should be allowed to do its work without any conclusions being drawn.

Disregard for standards

Thangam Debbonaire, the Labour Party's shadow leader of the House, said: "This is just the latest in a long line of appointments that demonstrates this government's complete disregard for standards in politics."

Other appointments in the reshuffle also came in for criticism.

Former leader of the Commons and staunch Brexit supporter Jacob Rees-Mogg has been moved to a new role of minister for Brexit opportunities and government efficiency.

In an interview in 2018, Rees-Mogg said it could be up to five decades until the benefits of Brexit, for which he campaigned, would be visible. "We won't know the full economic consequences for a very long time, we really won't. The overwhelming opportunity for Brexit is over the next 50 years," he said.

Elsewhere, former deputy chief whip Stuart Andrew became the 11th person to hold the office of minister for housing in the last 12 years.

The Daily Mirror newspaper reports that in 2016, Andrew voted against an amendment to legislation to make all rented homes "fit for human habitation".