THE INDEPENDENT: David Cameron has become Britain's youngest Prime Minister in almost 200 years as the head of a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition which was agreed during a day of extraordinary drama in Westminster.
The new coalition is Britain's first since the Second World War. Mr Cameron's 23-strong Cabinet will include five Liberal Democrats, giving the party their first taste of real power for 70 years. Nick Clegg, their leader, becomes Deputy Prime Minister.
The Tory leader was formally appointed by the Queen just minutes after Gordon Brown met her to tender his resignation, following the collapse of Labour's talks with the Liberal Democrats aimed at keeping the Conservatives out of power.
The 43-year-old Mr Cameron is the youngest Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool in 1812. He is six months younger than Tony Blair was in 1997. After a long, five-day wait since last Thursday's election, Mr Cameron finally went to Buckingham Palace last night when Mr Brown brought down the curtain on New Labour's 13 years in power.
As the first Cabinet appointments emerged, George Osborne became Chancellor; William Hague was confirmed as Foreign Secretary, Andrew Lansley as Health Secretary and Liam Fox as Defence Secretary. For the Liberal Democrats, Mr Cable is expected to become Chief Treasury Secretary, David Laws the Schools Secretary and Danny Alexander the Schools Secretary. The Liberal Democrats are likely to have at least one minister in each Whitehall department, giving them about 20 posts. Their appointments will leave some Tory MPs who were frontbench spokesmen in opposition out in the cold.
Speaking outside No 10, Mr Cameron said that a "proper and full coalition" between the Tories and Liberal Democrats would bring "the strong, stable, good and decent government we need so badly". He admitted it would be "hard and difficult work" and that the coalition deal would "throw up all sorts of challenges". He said it would be built on the values of "fairness and responsibility". >>> Andrew Grice, Political Editor | Wednesday, May 12, 2010
