Welsh reaction to Cabinet reshuffle

Emily Price

David Cameron has made a dramatic return to the UK Government as part of a Cabinet reshuffle which saw Suella Braverman sacked as Home Secretary.

The former prime minister replaced James Cleverly as Foreign Secretary and will be given a peerage.

Mr Cleverly takes on the job of Home Secretary after Mr Sunak ended Mrs Braverman’s controversial tenure in the job.

Here’s a look at some of the reaction on social media from Welsh politicians..

Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader, Liz Saville Roberts said via X: “If Rishi Sunak hadn’t been so weak as to re-hire Suella Braverman six days after she was last sacked, he could have avoided this chaos.

“Even Liz Truss had better political instincts. People in Wales are fed up with this Westminster psychodrama.”

Sharing an image of David Cameron, she added: “No longer even a shadow of a pretence of democratic accountability The Tories’ obsession with clinging on to power is beyond parody.”

Also via X, formally Twitter, Plaid Cymru leader, Rhuna ap Iorwerth said: “Sacked twice from the same role, Braverman’s dismissal is as much about the Prime Minister’s lack of leadership as it is about the Home Secretary’s disastrous dog-whistling tenure.

“Another Conservative cabinet of chaos and another reminder of how there is a better way for Wales.”

Member of Senedd for South Wales East, Peredur Owen Griffiths posted: “What took him so long? She should have been sent packing a long time ago and if she had been, she couldn’t have whipped up a hate mob over the weekend with her dangerous rhetoric.

“Hopefully she will never see high office ever again

Referring to the sacking of the Home Secretary, Welsh Government Deputy Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Dawn Bowden posted: “About time too!”

Labour MP for the Rhondda, Chris Bryant posted a series of posts commentating on the fast developing news story.

He said: “It’s not a reshuffle we need; it’s a general election. Braverman gone. She should never have been appointed.

“One thing to remember about all these reshuffles is that, especially when junior ministers change, everything is up in the air all over again. No decisions get made. It’s a recipe for paralysis.

“It would be a disgrace to have a Foreign Secretary in the Lords especially at a moment of major political instability with war on the continent of Europe and a hideous conflagration in the Middle East. We’re a democracy not an elective dictatorship.

“I don’t see how appointing Cameron helps Sunak form a government of integrity and professionalism (Greensill) or represent change (when his FS is the living embodiment of their 13 years in power).”

Welsh Labour Member of the Senedd for Cardiff Central, Jenny Rathbone said: “Thank goodness Braverman has been sacked. Hard to think of anyone less suitable after her incendiary remarks last week; her disdain for the homeless will be remembered long after that.”

Sacked

Labour Councillor for Caldicot Castle County, Rachel Garrick said: “The man who led the UK out of the EU in order to free us from ‘unelected bureaucrats’ returns to government as an unelected bureaucrat.”

Labour MP for Cardiff West & Shadow Minister for Victims & Sentencing,
Kevin Brennan posted: “Suella sacked – what took so long?”

Labour Councillor and Leader of Rhondda Cynon Taf Council, Andrew Morgan posted: “What’s the bets there will be letters of no confidence going in by the end of the day?”

He also ran poll on X asking: “Does the country need yet another reshuffle or a General Election?”

The result so far stand as 98.1% calling for a general election.

Wales Green Party leader, Anthony Slaughter said: “One of the chief architects of austerity, the Brexit enabler who walked away from the chaos has been appointed unelected Foreign Secretary by an unelected Prime Minister as part of a #Reshuffle of the incompetent and the cruel.

“Westminster isn’t working. Wales deserves better.”

The Welsh Conservatives have stayed quiet on social media so far and have not released a statement via the party’s website.