Ministers in jubilant mood as Cabinet meets for the first time since landslide
The PM vowed ‘you ain’t seen nothing yet’ and led colleagues in a panto-style call and response.
Boris Johnson has told his new Cabinet “you ain’t seen nothing yet” days after the Tories’ sweeping General Election victory.
There was a jubilant atmosphere in the room at Number 10 as Mr Johnson thanked ministers for their work during the campaign and introduced Simon Hart, the new Welsh Secretary.
One of the loudest cheers of the meeting was for Nicky Morgan, who returns to her role as Culture Secretary despite leaving the Commons.
Welcoming her back to Cabinet, Mr Johnson called her “a face you may recognise”, sparking laughter from the room.
The ministers appeared to be in high spirits during the open part of the meeting.
They banged on the long green table four times during the short introduction and laughed along with the Prime Minister.
Mr Johnson said that while his previous government was busy, this term will be even more so.
He said: “The first 100 days were very busy, 140 days or what ever it was, you may remember it was a very frenetic time, but you ain’t seen nothing yet folks.”
The first cabinet meeting, taking place eight days before Christmas, included a panto-style call and response on key manifesto promises.
The Prime Minister said: “How many new hospitals are we going to build?”
“40,” the ministers replied.
Mr Johnson said: “Correct. How many more nurses are we going to hire?”
“50,000,” they said again.
“You know the answers,” Mr Johnson replied. “How many more police?”
“20,000,” the Cabinet said in unison.
The Prime Minister said that he risked “sounding more North Korean than normal” when telling the cabinet about new figures on unemployment, released by the Office of National Statistics on Tuesday morning.
But he had to correct himself after fluffing his lines.
“I’m proud to say today that Saj (Chancellor Sajid Javid) has just passed me some, at the risk of sounding more North Korean than normal, Saj has passed me some good economic news that unemployment is up again – employment is up again and unemployment is down.”
