General Election 2017: Boris Johnson among Cabinet members to keep their roles

Foreign secretary: Boris Johnson
AFP
Fiona Simpson9 June 2017
WEST END FINAL

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Key Tory cabinet members including Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Brexit secretary David Davis will keep their roles in Theresa May's minority Goverment.

Chancellor Philip Hammond, Home Secretary Amber Rudd and Defence Secretary Michael Fallon will also keep their positions, Downing Street said.

Mr Johnson told Sky News he was "delighted to be reappointed" and said there is "lots of great work to do" for the "greatest country on earth".

There had been speculation that Mr Hammond in particular would be vulnerable if the Prime Minister had been returned - as she had hoped - with an increased majority.

But after seeing her Commons majority wiped out on a night of humiliation for the Tories, she was left with limited room for manoeuvre when it came to re-shaping her top team.

As Britain woke up to a hung parliament, which will now be led as a Tory minority with support from the Democratic Unionist Party, bookies slashed the odds on Mr Johnson becoming the next Prime Minister despite Mrs May’s refusal to resign.

Boris Johnson
Getty Images

Odds on the former Mayor of London as favourite to succeed the current Prime Minister dropped to 7/1 on , who resisted mounting pressure to quit after her snap election backfired.

Mr Johnson was 66/1 to be the UK's next Prime Minister before polls closed on Thursday night, but those odds tumbled to just 7/1 as the knives came out for the Tory leader over her party's failure to secure a majority.

Earlier, Mrs May announced that she intended to carry on in No 10 at the head of a minority government with the support of the Democratic Unionists (DUP) after falling eight seats short of an overall majority.

General Election Front Pages 2017 - In pictures

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The move was denounced by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who called on her to stand aside and allow him to form an administration, declaring: "We are ready to serve".

However, Mrs May insisted that, as the leader of the largest party in the new parliament, she had a duty to act in the "national interest".

"As more results started to come through, it became clear that we were the party that had won most seats and most votes and felt it was incumbent on us at a critical time in our the country to form a government in the national interest," she said.

General Election Night 2017 - In pictures

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While Mrs May said her top ministers would remain in post, she hinted her two close aides, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill - blamed by many Tory MPs for the party's disastrous campaign - could face the chop.

"Other personnel issues are for other days," she said.

Speaking to Sky News, a shattered Mrs May, said she was “sorry” for the 12 MPs, including eight frontbenchers, who lost their seats.

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