Priti Patel is Britain’s first Indian-origin Home Secy

London, July 24 

Priti Patel, an ardent Brexiteer who was among the most vocal critics of Theresa May’s Brexit strategy, on Wednesday took charge as Britain’s first Indian-origin Home Secretary in the newly unveiled Boris Johnson Cabinet.

Patel had been a prominent member of the “Back Boris” campaign for the Conservative Party leadership and was widely tipped for the plum post in his frontline team.  “It is important that the Cabinet should represent modern Britain as well as a modern Conservative Party,” she said, just hours before her appointment was announced.

A long-standing Eurosceptic, Priti Patel had steered the Vote Leave campaign in the lead up to the June 2016 referendum in favour of Britain’s exit from the European Union (EU).  The 47-year-old was first elected as a Conservative MP for Witham in Essex in 2010 and gained prominence in the then David Cameron led Tory government as his Indian Diaspora Champion.  She went on to be appointed to junior ministerial posts, Treasury minister in 2014 and then Employment Minister after the 2015 General Election, before Theresa May promoted her to Secretary of State in the Department for International Development in 2016 until she was forced to resign the post in 2017.

Announcing other appointments, new British PM Boris Johnson, who vowed to implement the result of the 2016 Brexit referendum and lead Britain out of the European Union on October 31 with “no ifs or buts”, named former Interior Minister Sajid Javid to take over from Philip Hammond as Finance Minister. Javid, a former banker from a modest background, was a contender for the premiership but endorsed Johnson when he failed to get enough support from fellow Conservative MPs.  

Brexit hardliner Dominic Raab was appointed Foreign Secretary.  Raab, 45, who was also named as Johnson's effective deputy, resigned as Brexit minister in Theresa May’s government last year saying the divorce deal she struck with Brussels offered too many compromises. “The most important thing is to get us out of the EU by the end of October, preferably with a deal,” Raab said after Johnson appointed him. “In any event, we must get some finality for this Brexit process.” — Agencies