Cabinet Members (5 due to be Liberal Democrat, according to reports)
- Prime Minister – David Cameron MP
- Deputy Prime Minister – Nick Clegg MP
- Foreign Secretary – William Hague MP
- Chancellor of the Exchequer – George Osborne MP
Two sources confirm:
- Defence Secretary – Liam Fox MP
- Health Secretary – Andrew Lansley MP
- Work and Pensions Secretary – Philip Hammond MP
- Scotland Secretary – Danny Alexander MP
Currently Speculated:
- Vince Cable MP – a Treasury role, speculated as ‘Business and Banking’ within the Cabinet
- Chris Huhne MP – Climate Change
- David Laws MP – Schools Secretary
A Collective Responsibility
David Cameron MP will spend his first full day in Downing Street confirming his Cabinet and senior Ministers. Clegg is due to join him there in the next few minutes in his new role as Deputy Prime Minister. The BBC are updating Cabinet posts as they are confirmed here. It has been reported that there will be five Liberal Democrat Cabinet posts, and that up to 20 Liberal Democrats will get Ministerial jobs in total. This means that over one third of Clegg’s parliamentary party will be bound by collective responsibility.
Cameron will be publishing details of his coalition agreement today, with a more detailed announcement within the next 10 days. In the meantime, we understand that already agreed are:
- An emergency Budget within the next 50 days with plans for £6 billion of spending reductions
- The Liberal Democrats scrapping their ‘Mansion House’ tax on properties over £2m
- The Tories scrapping their plans to raise the inheritance tax threshold to £1m
- Plans to raise income tax thresholds for low earners
- The Liberal Democrats dropping their plans to scrap Trident with a view to a ‘value for money’ scrutiny of the programme
- A referendum on the Alternative Vote system
- Plans for 5 years fixed term parliaments
- Liberal Democrat concessions on Tory proposals for a cap on non-EU migration
For the Labour Opposition, Alan Johnson MP has signaled he will not stand for Labour Leader, following Harriet Harman MP’s similar announcement yesterday. This leaves the door open for both Miliband brothers – and Ed Balls MP to launch a challenge.
