Boris Johnson has given key cabinet roles to leading Brexiteers after becoming the UK’s new prime minister.

Dominic Raab and Priti Patel return to government as foreign secretary and home secretary respectively.

Sajid Javid has been named as the new chancellor as more than half of Theresa May’s old cabinet, including leadership rival Jeremy Hunt, quit or were sacked.

Earlier, Mr Johnson said the Brexit “doomsters and gloomsters” were wrong and the UK would leave on 31 October.

Speaking outside No 10, he said the UK would meet that deadline “no ifs, no buts”, adding: “The buck stops with me.”

Mr Johnson then turned his attention to a radical overhaul of the government, with 17 of Mrs May’s former senior ministers being axed or stepping down.

Announcing his departure, Foreign Secretary Mr Hunt said he had been offered an alternative role but had turned it down.

Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt, a leading Brexiteer who is popular across the party, was the most surprising departure. She has been replaced by Ben Wallace, a former soldier and longstanding ally of Mr Johnson’s.

Another prominent Brexiteer, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, was also ousted, along with Business Secretary Greg Clark – a vocal opponent of a no-deal Brexit.

All three supported Mr Hunt in the Tory leadership contest.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds, Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley, Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes, Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright and Communities Secretary James Brokenshire have also gone, along with Chris Grayling, whose record as Transport Secretary was much criticised.

Scottish Secretary David Mundell, who has left his position after four years, joked whether there would be “room” on the backbenches after all the dismissals.

This comes on top of the earlier resignations of four leading ministers, including Chancellor Philip Hammond, Justice Secretary David Gauke and Cabinet Office minister David Lidington.

Conservative MP Nigel Evans described the changes as a “summer’s day massacre”. (Excerpted from BBC) </s> Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has suffered a humiliating rebuff in front of Theresa May's cabinet over a leaked report that suggested he would demand a post-Brexit dividend of £100m a week for the NHS.

The BBC reported that Johnson was hoping to use the cabinet meeting to kick off a debate about healthcare spending in the midst of winter pressures on the NHS. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt had been due to give an update to cabinet members.

Johnson's bid to secure extra funding was supposedly driven by a fear that May was ready to abandon the NHS as an electoral cause, allowing Jeremy Corbyn to make it a key campaign point for Labour.

Following the cabinet meeting, May's official spokesman told the Guardian: "The prime minister and a large number of cabinet ministers made the point that cabinet discussions should take place in private.

"Regarding the future and how any return of EU contribution would be spent, the prime minister reminded cabinet that the government has consistently said we will spend money on our priorities such as housing, schools and the NHS."

The Telegraph reported that Hunt, Environment Secretary Michael Gove, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling and International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt were expected to back Johnson's plan.

He has long been considered a potential future Conservative leader and was widely considered a frontrunner for the job when David Cameron resigned after the EU referendum. In what has been a tumultuous 18 months for the prime minister, Johnson has been one of the leading options for alternative leadership, though he has not been without his own controversies.

Backbench Conservative MP Anna Soubry took to Twitter before the cabinet met to suggest that May should sack Johnson for longstanding incompetence and disloyalty. Soubry warned that if May did not act Johnson could "bring her down".

Chancellor Philip Hammond was the first to respond to the reports as he arrived at a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels.

"Mr Johnson is the foreign secretary," he said in a sly putdown. He noted that an extra £6bn had already been allocated to the NHS in the November budget.

Johnson was a key figure in the Vote Leave organisation campaigning to leave the EU in the runup to the 2016 referendum. Vote Leave claimed the UK was sending £350m to the EU every week, and that a leave vote would allow this money to be given to the NHS.

Their discredited claim was famously seen on the side of the Brexit Bus, with Johnson alongside. </s> Boris Johnson has quit as Foreign Secretary just hours after the resignation of Brexit secretary David Davis.

Downing Street confirmed the Prime Minister Theresa May accepted the resignation of the Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs as the government plunges further into turmoil over Brexit.

A Downing Street spokesman said: "This afternoon, the Prime Minister accepted the resignation of Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary. His replacement will be announced shortly. The Prime Minister thanks Boris for his work."

Despite reports Boris Johnson had attended a Cobra briefing at the Cabinet Office, his security detail remained parked outside his official residence on Pall Mall by 2.30pm, having arrived just after 8am.

His security team included six police motorcade riders, along with a Land Rover and his official car and were left waiting on his driveway for most of the day.

Officers twice warned journalists the Foreign Secretary was about to leave, only to then say they had been told to stand by.

Mr Johnson had been due to attend the Western Balkans Summit in London's Docklands this afternoon and to give a press conference at 5pm, but has so far failed to appear.

David Davis has warned the UK is giving "too much away, too easily" in the exit talks, but backed Theresa May to remain Prime Minister after his dramatic resignation rocked her premiership.

How David Davis's resignation as Brexit secretary could topple Theresa May

The outgoing Brexit Secretary said the Government had gone further than it should have in the negotiations, in a "dangerous strategy".

His late-night resignation plunged Mrs May into a fresh leadership crisis and he was swiftly followed out of the Department for Exiting the EU by ally Steve Baker.

Staunch Eurosceptic Dominic Raab was appointed Mr Davis's successor as Brexit Secretary, in a swift move which scotched speculation that Mrs May might take direct charge of negotiations herself.

The 44-year-old Esher & Walton MP enters Cabinet for the first time, having previously served in more junior ministerial posts in the housing and justice departments.

Appearing on BBC Radio 4's Today programme just hours after his midnight resignation, Mr Davis said a leadership challenge would be the "wrong thing to do" and insisted he believed Mrs May was a "good prime minister".

Asked if she could survive, he replied: "Oh yes, of course."

Brexiteer Andrea Jenkyns said Mrs May's premiership was "over" but Jacob Rees-Mogg, who chairs the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tory backbenchers, said he did not believe there would be an immediate challenge.

Downing Street insiders insisted Mr Davis had resigned over a difference of opinion rather than as part of a push against Mrs May, and said he had "done the honourable thing".

Mr Davis said he told the PM at Chequers that he was going to be the "odd man out in this" as the latest stage of the Brexit strategy was agreed.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today: "It seems to me we are giving too much away too easily and that's a dangerous strategy at this time.

"Hopefully we will resist very strongly any attempt to get any further concessions from us on this, because I think this goes further than we should have gone already."

Describing the plans as having a "number of weaknesses", he explained that it would "not have been plausible" for him to be "front and centre in delivering" it.

Mr Davis said he did not want others to follow him out of Government but added it was a "decision of conscience" that must be made "in their own minds".

He insisted a leadership challenge would be the "wrong thing to do" and ruled out standing against Mrs May.

Letters calling for a leadership contest have reportedly been submitted to the backbench 1922 Committee by some Conservatives over the weekend.

Mr Rees-Mogg urged the PM to drop the plan agreed at Chequers.

He told LBC radio: "I don't think a no-confidence vote is immediately in the offing.

"I think what the Prime Minister needs to do is give up on the Chequers proposals which, David Davis has pointed out in his resignation letter, don't actually deliver Brexit."

Senior Conservative Bernard Jenkin warned there had been a "massive haemorrhage of trust" as a result of the direction the PM was taking and said it "may well come" to a vote over her leadership.

Prominent Remain-supporting Conservative MP Anna Soubry said the Cabinet's Brexit plan was "far from perfect" but represented "grown-up steps".

Carolyn Fairbairn, director-general of the CBI, said there had been "real rays of light" in the Cabinet agreement on Friday and described the resignation as a "blow".

The Prime Minister faces a stormy meeting with Tory MPs and peers in Parliament on Monday evening as she tries to win support for her plan, which includes an offer to Brussels to share a "common rulebook" on goods and form a new UK-EU free trade area.

In his resignation letter, Mr Davis said the policy "hands control of large swathes of our economy to the EU and is certainly not returning control of our laws in any real sense".

The responsibility for leading the negotiations should now go to an "enthusiastic believer in your approach, and not merely a reluctant conscript", he said.

In her reply, Mrs May told him: "I do not agree with your characterisation of the policy we agreed on at Cabinet on Friday."

The PM is expected to use a Commons statement to tell MPs that the strategy agreed on at Chequers is the "right Brexit" for Britain.

Brexiteer Cabinet minister Michael Gove admitted the Chequers' plan was not everything he had hoped for, but he was a "realist" and the Prime Minister's lack of a Commons majority meant the "Parliamentary arithmetic" was a factor in deciding what could be adopted. </s> CITY MP Penny Mordaunt has announced she is heading to the backbenches and will no longer be defence secretary.

Ms Mordaunt was in the role for 85 days but will no longer hold the government role. It is not clear whether she quit or was pushed out.

She tweeted: ‘I’m heading to the backbenches from where the PM will have my full support, as will my successors at @DefenceHQ & @WomenEqualities.

‘Thank you to everyone who’s helped me get things done, especially our Armed Forces and civilians in defence for the last 85 days. We achieved much.’

It comes after Boris Johnson officially took over as prime minister today.

Theresa May left Number 10 for the final prime minister's questions of her premiership at just after 11am.

Chancellor Philip Hammond quit the government, along with development secretary Rory Stewart in the wake of Mr Johnson being elected.

Mr Johnson is set to carry out a no-deal Brexit if an agreement cannot be reached by October 31.

He said: ‘The people who bet against Britain are going to lose their shirts because we are going to restore trust in our democracy and we are going to fulfil the repeated promises of Parliament to the people and come out of the EU on October 31, no ifs or buts.

‘And we will do a new deal, a better deal that will maximise the opportunities of Brexit while allowing us to develop a new and exciting partnership with the rest of Europe based on free trade and mutual support.

'I have every confidence that in 99 days time we will have cracked it.’ </s> Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson ‘got a complete bitch slap’ from Theresa May after stepping out of line to call for more NHS funding, apparently.

Yesterday Johnson was put back in his place by the PM twice, and by other ministers including Philip Hammond and Jeremy Hunt for his public plea for the health service.

One cabinet minister went as far to say that Boris ‘got a complete bitch slap’, twice by the PM, report ITV, before he was slapped down by other cabinet ministers.

Johnson’s plea, widely perceived as a power play, was publicly rubbished by the chancellor, who reminded him he was in fact the foreign secretary, and not the health secretary.

May has now warned ministers that Cabinet discussions should remain private after Johnson let it slip that he intended to use the weekly meeting to press for an additional £5 billion for the NHS after Brexit.

As ministers gathered in No 10, Johnson was pre-empted by the PM who told the meeting any ‘Brexit dividend’ would be allocated according to the Government’s priorities – including schools and housing as well as health.

In the hour-long discussion that followed, there appeared to be exasperation at Johnson’s latest intervention, with ministers backing May’s view that their talks should remain confidential.

Although there was frustration at the way Johnson broke ranks, it is understood there was some support around the Cabinet for his position.

The Foreign Secretary’s fellow Vote Leave campaigners Michael Gove and Chris Grayling supported his call for the NHS to benefit from the ‘Brexit dividend’, and Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt would also welcome extra funding.

Downing Street made clear that senior ministers had concerns about the privacy of Cabinet talks.

‘The Prime Minister and a large number of ministers made the point that Cabinet discussions should remain private,’ the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.

The spokesman said that while most members had contributed to the discussion, no minister had mentioned a ‘specific number in relation to NHS funding’.

Former minister Anna Soubry warned May Johnson would bring her down unless she sacked him.

Ms Soubry, a prominent pro-EU campaigner, said the time had come for the Prime Minister to get rid of him.

He had shown ‘longstanding incompetence and disloyalty’ and unless May acts now ‘Boris will bring her down’, she said. </s> Boris Johnson will become Britain’s next prime minister after being elected leader of the Conservative party, defeating Jeremy Hunt in the party’s leadership contest.

The former mayor of London, who has long cherished an ambition to lead his country, won the contest by 92,153 votes to 46,656, with 66% of the vote. Turnout was 87.4% among 159,320 party members.

Johnson will not take office formally until Wednesday afternoon. Theresa May will face her final prime minister’s questions in the House of Commons before tendering her resignation to the Queen.

Johnson will then go to Buckingham Palace himself for his appointment to be confirmed – before being driven to Downing Street to give a speech in front of the black door of No 10.

He takes charge at a perilous political moment. The Conservatives’ wafer-thin parliamentary working majority is expected to be eroded further next week – to just two – if the Liberal Democrats win the Brecon and Radnorshire byelection.

Johnson has faced a furious internal revolt even before arriving in Downing Street, with several key cabinet ministers, including the chancellor, Philip Hammond, saying they will resign rather than serve under him.

They have been alarmed by Johnson’s insistence that he is willing to countenance leaving the European Union without a deal on 31 October, rather than postpone Brexit once again – even if that meant proroguing parliament.

And despite painstaking media management, his campaign has been dogged by a series of controversies, including the revelation that police had been called to a noisy argument at the home he shared with his partner, Carrie Symonds.

He was also blamed by some colleagues, including the Foreign Office minister Alan Duncan, for the resignation of the ambassador to Washington, Kim Darroch, after confidential diplomatic cables about Donald Trump were leaked.

Duncan – who resigned on Tuesday rather than serve under Johnson – said the former foreign secretary had thrown Darroch “under a bus”.

However, Johnson had been the runaway favourite to become leader after securing support from both wings of the bitterly divided Tory party, from the health secretary, Matt Hancock, to the chair of the European Research Group, Jacob Rees-Mogg.

He is regarded by colleagues as an impressive political campaigner, and the man with the best chance of seeing off the formidable electoral challenge from Nigel Farage’s Brexit party, which beat the Tories soundly in May’s European elections.

May will leave Downing Street on Wednesday after three years, after a premiership overwhelmingly defined by the failure of her government to implement Brexit.

Johnson is likely to embark on fresh negotiations with EU leaders and key Brussels decision-makers as soon as possible, with a view to securing changes to May’s deal in time for the Halloween deadline.

But with no secure majority, and Labour determined to demand a referendum on any deal he brings back from Brussels, many MPs believe he could be forced to call a general election within months in order to win a mandate for his plan. </s> COMBO FILE – In this file four-photo combo image of various recent dates, showing the contenders still placed to become leader of the Conservative Party, Wednesday June 19, 2019, with from left: Michael Gove, Boris Johnson, Jeremy Hunt, Sajid Javid. Rory Stewart has dropped out of the contest Wednesday. Britain’s Conservative Party will continue to hold elimination votes until the final two contenders will be put to a vote of party members nationwide, with the winner due to replace Prime Minister Theresa May as party leader and prime minister. (AP FILE Photo combo)

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s next prime minister will be a man in his 50s who went to Oxford University — either Boris Johnson or Jeremy Hunt, the two finalists selected Thursday in a race to lead the governing Conservative Party.

Johnson , a flamboyant former foreign secretary and ex-mayor of London, topped a ballot of 313 Conservative lawmakers with 160 votes and is runaway favorite to become the party’s next leader. He has led in all five voting rounds of a contest that began last week with 10 contenders.

Hunt , Britain’s current foreign secretary, came a distant second with 77 votes and will join Johnson in a runoff decided by 160,000 party members across Britain.

Johnson tweeted that he was honored to have gotten more than half the votes cast by party lawmakers. He said “I look forward to getting out across the U.K. and to set out my plan to deliver Brexit, unite our country, and create a brighter future for all of us.”

Hunt said on Twitter that he knew he was the underdog “but in politics surprises happen.”

The winner of the runoff, due to be announced the week of July 22, will become the new Conservative leader and the country’s next prime minister, replacing Theresa May.

Hunt edged out Environment Secretary Michael Gove, who got 75 votes, after Home Secretary Sajid Javid was eliminated earlier Thursday.

The result spares Johnson a showdown with Gove, his former ally-turned-archrival. The two men jointly led the “leave” campaign in Britain’s 2016 EU membership referendum, but Gove scuttled Johnson’s subsequent bid to become prime minister by deciding to run for the job himself, in a race ultimately won by May.

This time around, many in the party doubt that anyone can beat 55-year-old Johnson, a quick-witted, Latin-spouting extrovert admired for his ability to connect with voters, but mistrusted for his erratic performance in high office and his long record of inaccurate, misleading and sometimes offensive comments.

“Boris will say absolutely anything in order to please an audience,” historian Max Hastings told the BBC on Thursday. “Boris would have told the passengers on the Titanic that rescue was imminent.”

Hunt, who has been culture secretary and health secretary, is considered an experienced, competent minister, but unexciting. The 52-year-old politician bills himself as the “serious” candidate, in an implicit contrast to Johnson. He will try to halt Johnson’s momentum by picking away at his rival’s plans for Brexit as the two speak to party members at meetings across the country over the next few weeks.

Both Johnson and Hunt vow they will lead Britain out of the European Union, a challenge that defeated May. She quit as Conservative leader earlier this month after failing to win Parliament’s backing for her Brexit deal.

Brexit, originally scheduled to take place on March 29, has been postponed twice amid political deadlock in London.

Johnson has won backing from the party’s die-hard Brexiteers by insisting the U.K. must leave the bloc on the rescheduled date of Oct. 31, with or without a divorce deal to smooth the way.

He also is supported — somewhat paradoxically — by some Tory moderates who claim Johnson has the skills to unite the party and win back voters from rival parties on both the left and the right.

“The essence of Boris Johnson is a unifier,” he said.

Hunt backed the losing “remain” side in the referendum, a disadvantage in a party whose rank-and-file members are overwhelmingly pro-Brexit. Hunt now insists he is determined to go through with Brexit and says his past in business, running an educational publishing firm, gives him the experience to negotiate with the EU.

Hunt says he would seek another postponement of Brexit if that is needed to secure a deal, but only for a short time.

Critics say neither candidate has a realistic plan. The EU is adamant that it won’t reopen the Brexit agreement it struck with May’s government, which has been rejected three times by Britain’s Parliament.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Thursday that “the withdrawal agreement is not going to be reopened.”

He also said there was “enormous hostility to any further extension” of the Brexit deadline among the other 27 EU leaders.

Many economists and businesses warn that leaving the EU without a deal on divorce terms and future relations would cause economic turmoil as tariffs and other disruptions are imposed on trade between Britain and the EU.

U.K. Treasury chief Philip Hammond warned that a no-deal Brexit would put Britain’s prosperity at risk and leave the economy “permanently smaller.”

“The question to the candidates is not ‘What is your plan?’ but ‘What is your Plan B?'” Hammond said in extracts from a speech he was giving Thursday night.

Follow AP’s full coverage of Brexit and the Conservative Party leadership race at: https://www.apnews.com/Brexit </s> Boris Johnson will spend his first few days as leader of the Conservative Party putting together a team to run Downing Street and assembling his Cabinet to run the country. In doing so he will have to fill the gaps left behind by a number of ministers who have chosen to resign rather than acquiesce to Mr Johnson’s no-deal plans.

Know variously as Team Hammond, after Theresa May’s Chancellor, and the Gaukeward Squad, after David Gauke, the former Lord Chancellor, they plan to make life as difficult as possible for Mr Johnson if he tries to push for a no-deal Brexit.

Who are they?

The figureheads of the group are Mr Gauke, Philip Hammond, Rory Stewart, the former Development Secretary, and Greg... </s> Jo Johnson, brother of Boris Johnson, has resigned from Theresa May's cabinet as Transport minister, claiming the Brexit deal being finalized “will be a terrible mistake,” calling for a second referendum or ‘people's vote’.

Johnson made the shock resignation via an online video through his Twitter account. The Orpington MP, whose brother Boris spearheaded the Leave campaign, warned PM Theresa May's Brexit deal would leave the UK outside the EU but “wholly subject” to its rules.

The now ex-cabinet minister, who campaigned for the UK to remain in the EU during the 2016 referendum, made the stark claim that the issue of Brexit meant “Britain stands on the brink of the greatest crisis since the Second World War.”

He claimed the decision as to whether the UK now leaves the EU should be put into the hands of British citizens through a 'people's vote'.

Johnson said: “I think it is imperative that we now go back to the people and check that they are content to proceed on this extraordinary basis.

“Instead of 'in Europe but not run by Europe', we will be out of Europe and yet wholly subject to European rules.”

In his video, he insists that any hopes that existed for the “easiest deal in history” had now turned out to be “delusions.”

Tom Watson, Labour's Deputy leader, has called into question Theresa May's status as prime minister, highlighting the fact she has overseen a long list of cabinet resignations.

Labour’s shadow Brexit minister, Jenny Chapman, said Johnson was the 18th minister to quit May’s Tory government, adding: “She has lost all authority and is incapable of negotiating a Brexit deal within her own party, let alone with the EU.”

His resignation follows that of high profile Tories such as David Davis, his brother Boris, and Steve Baker who all fell out with the PM over her Chequers Brexit proposal.

Read More: Sinking ship? Spate of resignations could mean game over for Theresa May government

Downing Street have issued a statement saying: “The referendum in 2016 was the biggest democratic exercise in this country’s history.We will not under any circumstances have a second referendum. The prime minister thanks Jo Johnson for his work in government.”

It comes as Theresa May has been accused by the DUP of reneging on her promise to not sign up to a Brexit deal that treated Northern Ireland differently to the rest of the UK, warning the PM she couldn't rely on its support to get the plans agreed.

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Multiple cabinet members resign on the day of Johnson's ascension to premiership, or in the days preceding it, in response to Johnson's politics and views on Brexit, including Philip Hammond, Jeremy Hunt, David Gauke, Sir Alan Duncan, Rory Stewart, Anne Milton, and David Lidington.