Coalition Cabinet: Theresa May named new Home Secretary

Published by Jon Land for 24dash.com in Central Government

Theresa May was today named as Home Secretary in David Cameron's new coalition Government.

In the first batch of appointments announced by No 10, Ken Clarke was made the Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor.

George Osborne and William Hague were confirmed as Chancellor and Foreign Secretary respectively, while Liam Fox will be Defence Secretary.

Patrick McLoughlin, the Tory chief whip while they were in opposition, will carry on as the Government Chief Whip.

Mrs May, who will also be women's minister, emerged as the first big winner in the new administration.

She is promoted from the shadow work and pensions secretary in opposition to become only the second woman, after Jacqui Smith, to be Home Secretary - one of the three major offices of state.

There was no immediate announcement of any of the four Lib Dem ministers who will sit alongside Nick Clegg in Cabinet.

However the appointment of Mr Clarke to the Justice Department leaves a vacancy at his former business, innovation and skills portfolio which could go to one of Mr Clegg's team.

It was not immediately clear whether there would be a place around the Cabinet table for Chris Grayling who was the shadow home secretary prior to the election.

Earlier Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg shook hands on the steps of No 10, marking the start of Britain's first coalition Government since the Second World War.

The new Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister will stage their first joint press conference in Downing Street this afternoon.

Following a late-night meeting of Lib Dem MPs and the party's federal executive to endorse the deal, Mr Clegg sought to reassure his supporters in the country who were unhappy at the idea of a coalition with the Conservatives.

He said: "I want to assure you that I wouldn't have entered into this agreement unless I was genuinely convinced that it offers a unique opportunity to deliver the kind of changes you and I believe in."

Mr Hague said today the coalition represented a "realignment" of British politics.

He revealed that a document setting out the terms of the coalition would name areas - including the married tax allowance, nuclear power and university funding - where Liberal Democrats will be allowed to abstain from Government measures.

Mr Hague said he hoped there would not be any "difficulties" over the issue of the European Union.

"We have written into this agreement that we agree there should be no further transfer of sovereignty or powers over the course of the next Parliament, and that was not a difficult item to agree with the Liberal Democrats."

But he said on the broad range of policy, the parties had been able to agree a platform which both could push forward.

Mr Hague confirmed the new Government intends to introduce fixed-term Parliaments, with the next election to be held on the first Thursday of May 2015.

And he confirmed that former News of the World editor Andy Coulson will head the media operation of the coalition Government, which he said would avoid the "spin" of the New Labour years.

"This Government will be judged by whether it really brings down the deficit, reforms taxes so there is a fairer tax system, and improves the education system, not by whether it reannounces and misannounces and falsely announces a whole string of things every day, which was the style of the Blair and Brown years," said Mr Hague. "We are determined to change that."

Mr Hague told BBC Radio 4's Today programme Britain's first coalition for 70 years would require some "innovations" in the way Government operates.

"There are one or two measures on which we have agreed, since the parties have very different policies, that the Government will be able to bring forward measures and the Liberal Democrats will be able to abstain - for instance on the married tax allowance," he said, adding that this would also apply to higher education funding and nuclear power.

"Across the whole programme of deficit reduction, tax reform - with the exception of married tax allowance - immigration, major political reforms and constitutional change, on pensions and welfare, on the rest of education policy, civil liberties and the environment, we have reached true collective agreement."

Mr Hague acknowledged there would be some people on both sides who would find the arrangement difficult to accept.

"This is a genuine compromise between the parties," he said. "There are many things the Liberal Democrats have had to swallow that are very difficult for them, just as there are some things - like holding a referendum on a new voting system - that are very difficult for the Conservative Party to accept.

"That means, of course, there will be people in both parties who quietly wish it hadn't happened, I'm sure.

"But the acclamation for this agreement amongst both parties was very, very strong last night and I think if we can show we can continue to work in this way, then any little resentments will be put into perspective."

Mr Hague said Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg had already shown during the negotiations over a coalition that they had a "very good working relationship".

"One of the most striking things in the negotiations was not just that we reached agreement, but the manner in which we reached agreement," he said. "We found an excellent working relationship between the parties."

He accepted there would inevitably be disputes between the different sides of the new Government.

"Of course that will happen," said Mr Hague. "The way to resolve disputes is through the relationship between the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister and having seen them work together and talk together over the last few days, if we can resolve this situation - a hung Parliament where we have been campaigning against each other - their ability to resolve this situation bodes very well for our ability to make this work in government."

London Mayor Boris Johnson compared the new coalition to a "cross between a bulldog and a Chihuahua" and a "bright blue tropical fish with yellow dots".

He told Sky News: "I think actually that the British people in their brilliance and their imagination have come up with something potentially rather wonderful.

"They've taken the political pallet of colours and they've mixed them. They didn't want pure Conservative, they certainly didn't want Gordon Brown. And they've got something new and different.

"They've created a mongrel breed. It's a kind of cross between a bulldog and a Chihuahua. And like all mongrel breeds I think it will have a great deal of hybrid vigour and strength."

He said he did not believe there would be infighting or bickering between the parties, adding: "There's huge pressure on the Lib Dems in the Cabinet, on the Tories in the Cabinet, on all of us to get together and sort it out.

"I think it's a robust and interesting new specimen. It's like a glorious new, bright blue tropical fish with yellow dots, and it might well survive for a very long time. It might be very popular and very successful."

Sources confirmed that former Tory party leader Iain Duncan Smith would be the new Work and Pensions Secretary.

After losing the leadership in 2003, Mr Duncan Smith founded the Centre for Social Justice thinktank - whose report on "Broken Britain" has heavily influenced Conservative thinking on social policy.

Downing Street later announced that Vince Cable will be Business Secretary and David Laws Treasury Chief Secretary.