Opinion

New faces in cabinet but same problems remain

Boris Johnson has wasted no time in stamping his mark, sweeping away Theresa May's loyalists and longstanding Tory stalwarts and filling his cabinet with hardline Brexiteers, including some who drove his predecessor from office.

Politics is indeed a brutal business, as many high profile figures have found out and while there was no surprise at some of the resignations and sackings, the scale of the clear out has dismayed colleagues who see little attempt at united the party.

What the new prime minister has assembled is a cabinet to deliver Brexit by October 31 and if it fails to do that it will be totally their responsibility.

Aside from the eurosceptics and rightwingers who now populate this government, Mr Johnson also delivered a statement of intent in bringing in Dominic Cummings - a hugely controversial figure who led the Leave campaign in the referendum - as a senior adviser.

To sweeten the pill, the new PM has made a raft of spending pledges, on the NHS, social care and recruiting extra police officers although it is not clear how he will pay for these promises.

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As expected, among the ministerial casualties was the monumentally ineffectual secretary of the state for Northern Ireland, Karen Bradley.

Few will lament her departure although her successor may be grateful that she has set the bar so low that he can only look good by comparison.

It would be difficult to find someone less interested in the north although even a high degree of apathy cannot excuse her failure to ensure the victims of historical institutional abuse received the recompense recommended by the late Sir Anthony Hart.

The fact that she raised this issue with Mr Johnson yesterday, asking him to deliver for the victims of abuse, is quite astonishing.

The new secretary of state, Julian Smith, is a former Tory chief whip which is an important job in government and presumably he has been given a specific brief which may involve more than Mrs Bradley's do-nothing approach.

However, given his links to the DUP he will have work to do to reassure the other parties here that he can act as an honest broker during the talks.

It is all change at the top in terms of personalities and policies, but the new prime minister and secretary of state are facing the same problems.