Sajid Javid resigns as chancellor after refusing PM’s demand to sack aides
LONDON – UK Finance Minister Sajid Javid resigned on Thursday, British media reported, in a surprise move that ended up shattering Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s choreographed government reshuffle and raised questions over his leadership team.
“He has turned down the job of Chancellor of the Exchequer,” the Mirror newspaper quoted a source close to Javid as saying. “The PM said he had to fire all his special advisers and replace them with No 10 special advisers to make it one team.Media reported that Rishi Sunak — the 39-year-old Chief Secretary to the Treasury — had been offered the job as finance minister.
But his first sacking, that of Northern Ireland minister Julian Smith, who, only a month ago, had helped broker the restoration of a government in the British province, had prompted criticism from politicians north and south with the border with Ireland.