Second Johnson ministry
The Second Johnson ministry began on 13 December 2019, when Queen Elizabeth II invited Boris Johnson to form a new government following the 2019 general election, in which the Conservative Party was returned to power with a majority of 80 seats in the House of Commons. Initially the ministers were largely identical to those at the end of the first Johnson ministry, but changed significantly in February 2020.History
The Conservative minority first Johnson ministry, which came to power following the resignation of Prime Minister Theresa May in July 2019, could not implement its legislative programme due to a political impasse over Brexit. While the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 requires a two-thirds majority vote in parliament to trigger an election, Johnson bypassed this requirement by passing the Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019. In the resulting election, held on 12 December 2019, Johnson's Conservatives won a majority of eighty seats, the largest for a government led by a Conservative prime minister since Margaret Thatcher in 1987.
Initially the ministers were largely identical to those at the end of the first Johnson ministry, excepting the Secretary of State for Wales, in which position Simon Hart replaced Alun Cairns. Nicky Morgan, who stood down at the general election, and Zac Goldsmith, who lost his seat, were made life peers to allow them to remain in the government.
Johnson reshuffled his cabinet on 13 February 2020: Sajid Javid, Julian Smith, Esther McVey, Geoffrey Cox, Andrea Leadsom, Theresa Villiers and Chris Skidmore all left the government.
Andrew Sabisky worked as a political adviser in Johnson's office for a short time in February. Sabisky, a speaker at the secretly held London Conference on Intelligence at UCL in 2015, believed that there were significant differences in average intelligence between different races, and supported enforced contraception. This caused concern among politicians of all parties in the UK Parliament only a few days after Sabisky's appointment. He resigned from his advisory role on 17 February 2020.
On 17 March 2020, Johnson announced in a daily news conference that the government "must act like any wartime government and do whatever it takes to support our economy". This is in regards to the current coronavirus pandemic, which will effectively change how his ministry operates for the foreseeable future.Cabinet
December 2019 – February 2020
February 2020 – present
Departments of state
Law officers
Parliament
