Today’s news summary – Paper Talk
Wednesday’s front pages report on the cabinet reshuffle by the new prime minister – a cabinet that now represents a more “unity” cabinet. PM Rishi Sunak’s top team are from across the Tory party.
“A new dawn for Britain,” says the Daily Mail, which features a picture of the PM shaking hands with King Charles. “Leave it to me, Your Majesty” is the paper’s headline.
“Kings can only get better,” is the Metro’s headline which uses the same image of PM Rishi Sunak and King Charles. The Daily Express says the new PM was “undaunted” and “resolute” as he set out his plans and priorities yesterday.
The Sun praises his “humility” saying he was “measured, sensible and statesmanlike” and described his debut speech as “skilful and pitch perfect.”
PM Sunak’s cabinet reshuffle was aimed at “re-setting” the Tory party, according to the Daily Telegraph which goes on to call Liz Truss’s premiership “calamitous.”
The Express says the PM has “brought talented colleagues into his big tent”. But the left-wing Daily Mirror calls them “old cronies” who “made the mess in the first place.”
Crisis cabinet
The i newspaper calls Rishi Sunak’s top team a “crisis cabinet” whilst the Times reports putting Suella Braverman back in the cabinet was to “appease” the right wing of the party.
But Financial Times says the move “astonished some Tory MPs”. And the Guardian says the new PM “risks alienating backers of his leadership rival, Penny Mordaunt.”
Penny Mordaunt had “argued in vain that she deserved a promotion from her existing role” as Commons leader, according to the Mail. A source tells the paper she “paid the price for continuing her leadership campaign long after it appeared lost” – but another source claims she was offered a promotion but turned it down.
The PM’s decision to keep Jeremy Hunt at the Treasury shows that the chancellor’s economic approach “chimes with Mr Sunak’s views” reports the Telegraph.
The Times says PM Sunak is considering delaying the government fiscal statement until next month “to allow more time to scrutinise the options.”