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One truism of a new prime minister choosing their first cabinet is that this is the easiest appointments they will make, made from a position of strength. But such a set-piece moment can also sow the seeds of troubles to come – particularly, it could be argued, in the way Liz Truss has gone about the task.
Before Truss was confirmed as the new Conservative leader, several party grandees urged her to avoid what they called Boris Johnson’s mistake of basing cabinet appointments purely on loyalty.
The new prime minister has perhaps been slightly less reliant on open sycophancy as a gauge of suitability for office. But it is striking how her inaugural cabinet seemingly contains almost no ministers who supported Rishi Sunak in the Tory leadership race.
Every new PM is “entitled to reward supporters”, as one of Tuesday’s more embittered resignation letters, from the former veterans’ minister Johnny Mercer, put it.
Similarly, prime ministers have a natural tendency to lean towards those they already know and trust, particularly as they adjust to the burdens of Downing Street. But it is notable how uniformly the top of Truss’s cabinet is a mix of friends, former colleagues and ideological soulmates. But most of all, supporters.
Of the big jobs, the new chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, is a longtime ally from the “Singapore-on-Thames” low-regulation wing of the party, while James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, was a Foreign Office colleague as well as being a fellow east of England MP.
