May builds new-look Brexit cabinet to steer EU divorce
New Prime Minister Theresa May ruthlessly overhauled the British cabinet on July 14, sacking a raft of ministers, promoting loyalists and putting supporters of Britain's exit from the European Union firmly in charge of negotiating its terms.
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A day after replacing David Cameron, May told the head of the European Commission that Britain needed time to determine its negotiating strategy, brushing off pressure from European leaders to swiftly launch the two-year official exit process.
Her most contentious appointment is Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, accused by his French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault on July 14 of lying to Britons in the run-up to last month's shock referendum vote to leave the 28-nation EU.
Johnson, who during the campaign compared the bloc's aims to those of Hitler and Napoleon, told reporters that despite Brexit, Britain could play an even greater role in Europe.
"There's a massive difference between leaving the EU and our relations with Europe, which if anything I think are going to be intensified," he told reporters.
Three weeks after the referendum, May's new government faces the formidably complex task of extricating Britain from the EU - itself reeling from the shock of Brexit - while trying to protect the economy from feared disruption to confidence, trade and investment.
