PM Theresa May promises 'country which works for all' - latest on cabinet appointments

Mrs May took office yesterday as the UK's second female Prime Minister with the promise to create "a country that works for everyone".

Speaking outside the famous black door of 10 Downing Street, Mrs May said that the decisions of her administration would be driven not by the interests of "the privileged few" but those of voters struggling with the pressures of modern life.

In Mrs May's new cabinet Boris Johnson has been made Foreign Secretary in a move that puts the leading Brexit campaigner at the heart of government.

Theresa May has appointed Amber Rudd to replace her at the Home Office and ally Philip Hammond becomes the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

George Osborne, whose career was inextricably linked with Mr Cameron's fortunes, has left government amid claims he was sacked.

York-born David Davis will become Secretary of State for Brexit and former Darlington MP Michael Fallon is to stay on as Defence Secretary.

Justice Secretary Michael Gove, a prominent campaigner to leave the EU who then stood as Conservative leader after saying he could no longer support Boris Johnson, has been sacked as Justice Secretary, and will form no part of the new Government.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has said she is leaving her job and John Whittingdale has left his role as Culture Secretary.

The flurry of appointments came within hours of Mrs May taking office.

In a speech in Downing Street, Britain's second female Prime Minister said that the decisions of her administration would be driven not by the interests of "the privileged few" but those of voters struggling with the pressures of modern life.

"I know you are working around the clock, I know you are doing your best and I know that sometimes life can be a struggle," she told voters.

"The Government I lead will be driven not by the interests of the privileged few but by yours. We will do everything we can to give you more control over your lives."

Here is what we know about Theresa May's Cabinet so far:

• Chancellor: Philip Hammond​

 Philip Hammond. Picture: Steve Parsons/PA Wire

In one swift announcement George Osborne was out and former Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond was in as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Mr Hammond has risen to some of the highest offices in Government while leaving little trace in the public imagination.

His reputation - within Westminster at least - has been as a highly articulate and effective "safe pair of hands" who can plough a steady course without causing drama, upset or excitement.

It is exactly those qualities which have made him the "reassuringly boring" choice for successive promotions to Transport Secretary, Defence Secretary, Foreign Secretary and now Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Despite being a permanent fixture in David Cameron's shadow frontbench team and Cabinet throughout his time as leader, he was rarely mentioned as a possible successor - and that is probably the way he liked it.

The Treasury has always been his goal, and he is understood to have been disappointed to miss out on the number two job there in 2010 when the necessities of coalition gave Liberal Democrats the Chief Secretary's post - a role he had shadowed for three years in opposition. Sent instead to the Department for Transport, he was swiftly moved on to Defence in the aftermath of the exit of Liam Fox amid a public furore over his special adviser.

With a reputation forged in the shadow Treasury team as the Tories' public spending "axeman", he was ideally placed to preside over a big spending squeeze to close the "black hole" in Ministry of Defence budgets.

His installation as Foreign Secretary in 2014 was hailed by Eurosceptics, who detected signs of a fellow spirit in comments which appeared to suggest he was ready to contemplate withdrawal from the EU if the Government was unable to negotiate a better deal.

But when the referendum came, he remained true to his practice of never rocking the boat, loyally backing Mr Cameron's renegotiation and backing the Remain side during the campaign.

After the result came in, Mr Hammond, 60, did not demur from Theresa May's insistence that "Brexit means Brexit" but left little doubt that he thought voters had handed the new Prime Minister a thankless task, warning that the process of leaving the EU could take six years.

As Foreign Secretary, he played a key role in the 2015 agreement for Iran to give up its military nuclear ambitions.

And he was the minister who tabled the fateful European Union Referendum Bill in the House of Commons.

State-educated in his native Essex, Philip Anthony Hammond arrived at Oxford University to study philosophy, politics and economics on the day Labour won the second general election of 1974.

His devout belief in economic stability and prudent public finances were forged in the turbulent years that followed, culminating in Margaret Thatcher sweeping to power in 1979.

Mr Hammond made his first steps in party politics during that campaign as a volunteer in Westminster, going on to be chair of the Lewisham East Conservative Association for several years.

After a failed 1994 by-election bid, his entry to the Commons came on another day of victory for Labour - Tony Blair's 1997 landslide when he secured the Surrey seat of Runnymede and Weybridge which he has held ever since.

Quickly promoted to William Hague's opposition front bench at health, he held several other positions and moved into the shadow cabinet as chief secretary under Michael Howard in 2005.

Married with three children, he faced some criticism during the expenses scandal for claiming almost the full second home allowance despite living in the commuter town of Woking.

He is reported to be one of the richest individuals in the Cabinet with the success of the property company he co-founded said to have netted him an £8 million fortune.

• Home Secretary: Amber Rudd

Amber Rudd leaves 10 Downing Street. Picture: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

New Home Secretary Amber Rudd has enjoyed a steep elevation in status from working as "aristocracy co-ordinator" on Four Weddings And A Funeral to running Britain's counter-terrorism efforts, police forces, and immigration policies.

The former investment banker, venture capitalist, and financial journalist, 52, decided to enter politics in her 40s in order to get "a grip on her life".

"I decided to take my life back. In my 20s I was leaving university, getting married or having a baby. And then, in my 30s, I was just keeping my head above water. When I hit 40 I thought I have got to get a grip of my life and really point it in the direction I want it to go rather than just swim hard against the current," Ms Rudd told the FT.

David Cameron put Ms Rudd on his controversial A-list of candidates and she took Hastings and Rye back from Labour in 2010, and then enjoyed a rapid rise through the ranks serving as parliamentary private secretary to Chancellor George Osborne two years later, before being promoted to junior minister at the Energy and Climate Change department in 2014, then entering Cabinet as secretary of state for the same brief just last year.

Ms Rudd's time at the Climate Change department has often been a stormy one as when she piloted fracking legislation through the Commons as its junior minister she was accused by the opposition of reneging on pledges not to let the controversial gas extraction process occur in national parks by announcing that drilling would be allowed underneath such protected areas if it began outside their surface boundaries.

And after becoming secretary of state at the department her attitude to renewable energy was strongly criticised by environmentalists.

Ms Rudd was a committed Remain campaigner who raised eyebrows with the highly personalised attacks she launched on her now Cabinet colleague Boris Johnson during a live TV clash in which she declared: "Boris is the life and soul of the party, but he is not the man you want driving you home at the end of the evening."

She then came to Theresa May's aid in the short-lived, but bruising, run-off campaign with Andrea Leadsom as she slapped down her own junior minister at the Energy Department by questioning Ms Leadsom's experience.

The ex-Cheltenham Ladies' College pupil, and Edinburgh University history graduate, has a son and a daughter from the five years she was married to columnist AA Gill, who used to refer to her as "the silver spoon" in his restaurant reviews.

Four Weddings And A Funeral director Richard Curtis said he gave Ms Rudd, who is believed to briefly appear in a church scene in the film, the job of casting extras for the movie, because: "She knew a lot of dukes and earls."

In-coming Prime Minister Mrs May clearly thinks Ms Rudd knows a lot about law and order as well.

• Foreign Secretary: Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson. Picture: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

Boris Johnson has been thrown a political lifeline after Theresa May appointed him Foreign Secretary little more than a week after his bid to take her on for the leadership of the party spectacularly crashed and burned.

The former London mayor's greatest political achievement had, ironically, fatally undermined his long-held ambition of succeeding David Cameron in No 10.

Mr Johnson pulled out of the leadership race after Brexit ally Michael Gove's shock announcement of his own candidacy and brutal personal assessment that the Uxbridge and South Ruislip MP ''cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead''.

Once Mrs May was installed as the new leader, her flamboyant former rival's political career appeared all but over.

But his credentials as the star of the Leave campaign and popularity with the party's grassroots make him difficult to ignore and the new PM is keen to build a top team that reaches out to both sides of the EU referendum debate.

For a man who once claimed there was more chance of him being ''reincarnated as an olive'' than taking the keys to No 10, Mr Johnson, 52, did a remarkable job of making himself appear the inevitable successor to Mr Cameron.

After leading the Brexiteers to victory, his stock among the widely Eurosceptic Conservatives grassroots was higher than ever and a string of MPs had already thrown their support behind him.

But doubts remained about his commitment to Brexit, prompted in part by his late and agonised declaration for the Leave camp and fuelled by a Telegraph column in which he declared that ''Britain is part of Europe, and always will be''.

Tory colleagues in the Remain camp always suspected the Old Etonian was not an ''outer'' at heart and many believed he threw his allegiance behind Leave to give himself the best chance of taking over from frenemy Mr Cameron, who was a few years behind him at school and a fellow member of the Bullingdon dining club at Oxford.

Meanwhile, his reputation as the Tory capable of reaching out to voters way beyond the party's traditional support took a blow as he was viciously heckled outside his home by cycling members of the youthful and metropolitan constituencies which he had cultivated as London mayor.

His election to City Hall in 2008 and retention of the powerful position four years later was a clear demonstration of Mr Johnson's star quality at the ballot box, catapulting him into the front rank of contenders for the Tory leadership.

Despite achieving only minor shadow cabinet experience during his first stint in Parliament, his distinctive shock of blond hair, his erudite and joke-packed speaking style and his regular appearances on TV's Have I Got News for You had already made him one of the UK's most recognised politicians.

His sometimes elusive relationship with the truth led to him being sacked from The Times for inventing a quote and dumped from the Tory frontbenches for lying over an alleged affair.

In an uncomfortable TV grilling in 2013, he was accused by interviewer Eddie Mair of being a ''nasty bit of work'' over allegations that he promised to help a friend's plan to have a journalist beaten up.

A stint at the Daily Telegraph as its Brussels correspondent honed his EU-bashing skills but saw him accused of myth-making as he set off a string of warnings about the EU's supposed attempts to ban bendy bananas or prawn cocktail crisps.

And as editor of The Spectator, he was forced to apologise to the city of Liverpool after signing off on an editorial accusing its citizens of wallowing in pity after engineer Ken Bigley's killing in Iraq.

One of Parliament's highest-earning MPs, Mr Johnson paid nearly £1 million in tax over four years, much of his earnings coming from his Daily Telegraph column and royalties from books.

His marriage to first wife Allegra Mostyn-Owen lasted six years and he later married Marina Wheeler, a QC.

• Defence Secretary: Michael Fallon

Michael Fallon. Picture: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

The former Darlington MP had been tipped as a possible candidate for promotion but Mrs May appeared to give her seal of approval to his work in the past two years by keeping Mr Fallon in his current role.

• Secretary of State for Brexit: David Davis

David Davis. Picture: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

David Davis's appointment as Brexit Secretary will be a dream come true for the former Europe minister who delighted in the nickname of "Monsieur Non".

A long-standing Eurosceptic, his Cabinet posting ends a spell in the political wilderness after he walked out of David Cameron's front bench on a point of principle.

Intriguingly, Theresa May's decision to put him in her top team comes despite Mr Davis pursuing legal action in the European courts against surveillance laws she introduced.

The Tory MP joined forces with Labour deputy leader Tom Watson to jointly challenge the legality of the Government's Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014.

As Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union he will be keen to play hardball in the negotiations to take Britain out of the bloc.

Mr Davis gained a fearsome reputation after taking a series of ministerial scalps in the role of Shadow Home Secretary.

Among those he claims as his victims are former home secretaries David Blunkett and Charles Clarke and ex-home office minister Beverley Hughes.

He was regarded by many as the likely next Tory leader after Michael Howard announced he was to resign, but after a weak campaign - in his second tilt at the leadership - he was soundly beaten.

His rival, David Cameron, had caught the mood with his careful presentation and youthful optimism.

On the 42-day detention issue, Mr Davis had to persuade Mr Cameron and George Osborne that the party should be firmly on the side of civil liberties.

In June 2008 he shocked Westminster by announcing that he was resigning as an MP to "take a stand" against the terror detention plan, sparking a by-election that saw him hold his Haltemprice and Howden seat.

A libertarian who was never afraid to speak his mind, even if his opinions fell outside the party line, he worked closely with former Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti.

His friendship with former Downing Street spin chief Alastair Campbell raised Conservative eyebrows.

Mr Davis once revealed that he offered to buy Mr Campbell's old newspaper the Daily Mirror so the former journalist could edit it.

He put their unlikely friendship down to his liking for ''strong mavericks'' and there is something of that description in him.

His upbringing was far from that of a typical Tory MP. Brought up on a south London council estate by his single mother, he shone at grammar school and got an Army scholarship to Warwick University, hence his membership of the Territorial SAS.

As a part-time member of the SAS, he has broken his nose no fewer than five times.

He also studied at Harvard before starting a successful business career at Tate and Lyle. His background, supporters argued during his Tory leadership campaign in 2005, made him ideal to win back the working-class voters who had deserted his party for new Labour.

Despite Eurosceptic views, he acted as a whip for John Major during the bruising battle to ratify the Maastricht Treaty.

In the 2001 leadership contest Mr Davis cut his losses and quit after twice finishing way down the pack in early ballots of Tory MPs, throwing his support behind Iain Duncan Smith.

The contest successfully raised his profile and Mr Duncan Smith appointed him party chairman.

• International Trade Secretary: Liam Fox

Dr Liam Fox: Picture: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

By becoming Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox rejoins the ranks of Conservative heavyweights after years of being out in the cold.

The right-wing Brexiteer backed Theresa May after he was eliminated in the first round of the race for the Tory crown.

In backing the new Prime Minister, Dr Fox stressed it was essential for the new leader to "have an understanding at the top levels of government and of international affairs and how the process in Whitehall operates".

The former defence secretary was cast into the margins of his party five years ago - forced to resign from the front benches in disgrace in 2011 after allowing his friend and best man Adam Werritty to take on an unofficial and undeclared role as his adviser.

Dr Fox, the MP for North Somerset, was the architect of his own political downfall by blurring the lines between his personal friendships and professional responsibilities.

He allowed Mr Werritty, a man 17 years his junior, to attend meetings at the Ministry of Defence without obtaining the necessary security clearance and join him for meetings with foreign dignitaries.

The pair even lived together for a short while in Dr Fox's taxpayer-funded London flat.

An inquiry was launched over concerns about the nature of their relationship, and in October 2011 Dr Fox resigned after admitting errors of judgment.

In 2012 he was ordered to repay £3,000 of expenses for allowing Mr Werritty to live rent-free at the London home for a year.

In 2013 he claimed 3p of taxpayers' cash for a car journey of less than 100m, one of 15 claims of under £1 for car travel approved in 2012/13. He said that his office submitted his expense claims, all done correctly according to rules.

The Scots-born doctor has often raised eyebrows at Westminster with his colourful personal and professional life.

A hardline right-winger, his relationship with No 10 has at times been strained, particularly after two highly-critical letters he wrote to Prime Minister David Cameron found their way into the press.

His traditional right-wing views have secured him a strong powerbase within the party but he failed in his bid to become party leader in December 2005.

A Brexit-backer, two years ago he urged David Cameron to ditch the promise of bringing net migration down to the tens of thousands and instead focus on curbing the number of low-skilled workers entering the UK.

Dr Fox voted against gay marriage, and in 2013 called for the Guardian to be prosecuted over its role in the Edward Snowden leaks, accusing the newspaper of collaborating in "indiscriminate publication" of material which damaged national security.

Before becoming an MP, Dr Fox worked both in the NHS and as a civilian army medical officer. He has credited his military work with convincing him of the Government's need to look after the armed forces.

Born and raised in East Kilbride, Scotland, he attended the local comprehensive school before going on to study medicine at Glasgow University.

After working as a GP in Somerset and Buckinghamshire, he successfully contested the rural Somerset seat of Woodspring, now North Somerset, in 1992.

The newly-elected MP soon became a polished Westminster performer thanks to his prize-winning debating skills, rising quickly through the ranks of Tory MPs and arriving at the Foreign Office in 1995.

In opposition, the anti-devolutionist was given charge of the constitutional affairs brief before taking over responsibility for health from Ann Widdecombe.

He was made party chairman in 2003 under then-leader Michael Howard, and his slick, reliable performances often saw him named as a potential successor.

In 2005 he married long-term girlfriend Jesme, a fellow doctor from the same area south of Glasgow.

In an interview shortly before the big day, he said: "I know that some people use smears and I have heard them for years. They'd say 'Why are you not married? You must be a playboy or a wild man or gay', or whatever. Well, I'm getting married in December and I'm perfectly happy with my private life."

Few middle-aged Tory men can claim to be friends with a glamorous Australian pop star but Dr Fox counts Natalie Imbruglia among his close pals.

He was forced to resign from his role as defence secretary in 2011 after allowing his friend and best man Adam Werritty to take on an unofficial and undeclared role as his adviser. Five years on he has been welcomed back into the ranks by the new Prime Minister. He ran in the Tory leadership contest but was quick to back Mrs May when he was eliminated in the first round.

Here is Theresa May's first speech as Prime Minister in full:

New Prime Minister Theresa May and her husband Philip John outside 10 Downing Street, London. Picture: Hannah McKay/PA Wire

"I have just been to Buckingham Palace where Her Majesty the Queen has asked me to form a new Government and I accepted.

"In David Cameron I follow in the footsteps of a great modern Prime Minister.

"Under David's leadership the Government stabilised the economy, reduced the budget deficit and helped more people into work than ever before.

"But David's true legacy is not about the economy but about social justice.

"From the introduction of same sex marriage to taking people on low wages out of income tax altogether, David Cameron has led a One Nation government and it is in that spirit that I also plan to lead.

"Because not everybody knows this but the full title of my party is the Conservative and Unionist Party and that word unionist is very important to me.

"It means we believe in the union, the precious, precious bond between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - but it means something else that is just as important.

"It means we believe in a union not just between the nations of the United Kingdom but between all of our citizens - every one of us - whoever we are and wherever we're from.

"That means fighting against the burning injustice that if you're born poor you will die on average nine years earlier than others.

"If you're black you are treated more harshly by the criminal justice system than if you're white.

"If you're a white working class boy you're less likely than anybody else in Britain to go to university.

"If you're at a state school you're less likely to reach the top professions than if you're educated privately.

"If you're a woman you will earn less than a man.

"If you suffer from mental health problems, there's not enough help to hand.

"If you're young you will find it harder than ever before to own your own home.

"But the mission to make Britain a country that works for everyone means more than fighting these injustices. If you're from an ordinary working class family, life is much harder than many people in Westminster realise."

"You have a job, but you don't always have job security. You have your own home but you worry about paying the mortgage.

"You can just about manage, but you worry about the cost of living and getting your kids into a good school.

"If you are one of those families, if you're just managing, I want to address you directly. I know you are working around the clock, I know you're doing your best and I know that sometimes life can be a struggle.

"The Government I lead will be driven, not by the interests of the privileged few but by yours. We will do everything we can to give you more control over your lives.

"When we take the big calls we will think not of the powerful, but you. When we pass new laws we will listen not to the mighty, but to you.

"When it comes to taxes we will prioritise not the wealthy, but you. When it comes to opportunity we won't entrench the advantages of the fortunate few, we will do everything we can to help anybody, whatever your background, to go as far as your talents will take you.

"We are living through an important moment in our country's history.

"Following the referendum, we face a time of great national change. And I know because we're Great Britain we will rise to the challenge.

"As we leave the European Union we will forge a bold new positive role for ourselves in the world and we will make Britain a country that works not for a privileged few but for every one of us.

"That will be the mission of the Government I lead and together we will build a better Britain."