Resignation mars May's cabinet reshuffle

LONDON, Jan 09 (AFP): British Prime Minister Theresa May's long-awaited government reshuffle Monday was branded ineffectual and shambolic after she promoted few fresh faces to her top team and a minister resigned rather than accept a new post.

Education Secretary Justine Greening became the fourth minister to leave the Cabinet since November, after resisting a request to move to the welfare and pensions ministry.

Meanwhile health minister Jeremy Hunt convinced May at the last minute to scrap plans to move him to the business department, according to media reports.

Most of her senior ministers also kept their jobs in the reshuffle, including Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Brexit minister David Davis and finance minister Philip Hammond.

The prime minister carried out what her office called a "refresh" of the government after sacking her deputy Damian Green last month in a row over pornography found on his computer in 2008.

His departure followed those of the defence and aid ministers in unrelated scandals the previous month.

May hoped the shakeup would help her reassert authority ahead of crunch Brexit negotiations this year, and following a torrid 2017 in which she lost her parliamentary majority in a snap election last summer.

An interim deal on Brexit in December appeared to give her new impetus, and the much-anticipated reshuffle was arranged.

But the day began in a farcical fashion when her Conservative party announced a new chairman on Twitter, only to delete the tweet and later name another lawmaker for the post.

"No wonder Theresa May's struggling to negotiate Brexit-she can't even organise a reshuffle," opposition Labour MP Stephen Kinnock swiftly tweeted.

Following Hunt's reported refusal to move and Greening's resignation later Monday, Britain's newspapers were quick to lambast May's reboot.

The Times' front page called the reshuffle "shambolic" while The Daily Telegraph declared it the "night of the blunt stiletto".

Some Conservative lawmakers appeared to agree, with Tory grandee Nicholas Soames tweeting: "I don't mean to be rude or to be seen to be disloyal but there needs to be a major improvement to the reshuffle tomorrow."