Indian origin MP Priti Patel and Pakistani origin MP Sajid Javid have joined Theresa May's Cabinet as the Secretary for International Development and Secretary of State and Communities and Local Government respectively.
Alok Sharma, an Indian origin MP has been promoted as the Minister of State for the Department for Communities and Local Government on 13 June 2017. He was the former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 17 July 2016 to 13 June 2017. Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon has been also been promoted as the Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 13 June 2017. Ahmad who is of Pakistani origin was the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport (Minister for Aviation) from July 2016 to June 2017.
Though the Cabinet has undergone very slight shuffle, the election results have rattled Theresa May's belief of 'Strong and Stable Britain'. On Friday morning Britain woke up to a hung parliament, with soaring popularity of the Labour party under Jeremy Corbyn and May's broken spirit. On Friday there were even speculations if she would step down and give way to Boris Johnson, India's son-in-law (as his wife is half Indian) to take over the Tory leadership. But by mid-day May she had already clarified that she was not going to resign, and forge ahead with stronger convictions and tougher resolutions, along with support from the DUP.
Theresa May's failure to lead the party to a full majority, has waged a mini civil war, with anticipations that Britain may again go to poll soon. However her bringing back former secretary Michael Gove to the government less than a year after she sacked him, may soften the blow. It is believed that his returned to the front bench as environment secretary, may prove vital, so that the “PM is given strong support for key Queen's Speech and Brexit talks."
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has also stood up on her behalf stating that Theresa May was the "best placed person" to lead the country through Brexit. International Trade Secretary Liam Fox also said he had "absolute faith" in the PM but former Chancellor George Osborne described Mrs May as "a dead woman walking" and said she would inevitably face a leadership challenge. Mr Osborne, now editor of the Evening Standard, said Tory MPs were "furious" that Mrs May had not acknowledged their losses in the general election.
May has brought in one more figure of Damian Green as First Secretary of State - a title often associated with the role of deputy prime minister - based in the Cabinet Office, in a limited reshuffle of her top team.
However on Monday she apologised to the Tory MPs for the party's election performance, telling them "I got us into this mess I'll get us out of it." Addressing a meeting of backbenchers, the PM reportedly said she would serve as "long as you want me to do".
One senior backbencher told the BBC that she had appeared "contrite and genuine but not on her knees".
It comes amid confusion over whether the Queen's Speech will be delayed because it has to be written on goatskin paper and the ink takes days to dry. Whitehall sources on Monday morning suggested at a briefing of journalists in Westminster that the state opening of parliament, scheduled for June 19, will be pushed back. However, critics have suggested that the Government is playing for time as it tries to hammer out the terms of a deal with the Democratic Unionist Party. The difficulty lies in the simple fact that the contents of the Queen’s Speech are yet to be finalised after voters returned a hung Parliament on June 8. The BBC reported that a senior minister has said he was "optimistic" that the Tories and Democratic Unionists will reach an agreement in the coming days to allow a proposed Tory minority government get its plans for the year ahead through the Commons, possibly as early as next Monday. But First Secretary of State Damian Green said he could not confirm the Queen's Speech will proceed as planned on 19 June.
Labour party, that has come back with a brilliant with much support from younger generation and said the government was "in chaos" and continued to be "in denial" about the message voters had sent about their opposition to an "extreme Brexit". Time will also tell if all those promises made by the Labour party are on solid grounds or not.
Mrs May addressed a packed meeting of the 1922 Committee for 90 minutes after her failure to win the election outright prompted days of speculation about her future.
According to reports of the meeting, she accepted personal responsibility for calling the snap election and for the result, which saw her party lose its overall majority and have to rely on the support of others.
'DUP veto'
Mrs May, who chaired a two-hour cabinet meeting on Monday, reportedly told the committee, a group of backbench MPs, that the DUP would not have a "veto" on the government's agenda, and there would be no watering down of equalities laws over which the two parties disagree.
