Boris Johnson to hold first meeting of new cabinet after reshuffle
Boris Johnson will gather his cabinet later for the first meeting of his top team since the prime minister’s reshuffle.
It comes after the PM completed a shake-up of his cabinet that saw a number of high-profile casualties.
Dominic Raab was replaced as foreign secretary by Liz Truss and moved to the roles of justice secretary and lord chancellor.
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PM assembles new top team
This has widely been viewed as a demotion in the wake of criticism for his handling of the Afghanistan crisis.
But Mr Raab was also named deputy prime minister, a move interpreted as an attempt by the PM to placate the former foreign secretary.
Downing Street has insisted that Mr Raab will continue playing an “important senior role” and his move had been “planned”.
Gavin Williamson was sacked as education secretary after a difficult 18 months amid the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on education.
He has been replaced by former vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi.
Other casualties included Robert Buckland, removed as justice secretary, and Robert Jenrick, who is no longer housing secretary.
Michael Gove now occupies the latter role, while Oliver Dowden lost his job as culture secretary and was replaced by Nadine Dorries.
He is now Conservative Party co-chair after the previous incumbent Amanda Milling was ousted just weeks before the party’s annual conference.
Anne-Marie Trevelyan has returned to cabinet as international trade secretary, taking on the post formerly held by Ms Truss.
On Thursday Mr Johnson reshuffled the junior and middle-ranking government ministers, with a raft of appointments made.
Nick Gibb has been removed as schools minister after more than a decade holding the brief as both minister and shadow minister, being replaced by Robin Walker.
Penny Mordaunt, meanwhile, has been appointed minister of state at the Department for International Trade, while John Whittingdale is no longer a media minister.
Elsewhere, Greg Hands has moved from international trade minister to become a business minister and Kemi Badenoch is now both a housing minister and Foreign Office minister.
In a tweet after carrying out his cabinet reshuffle, the PM said his top team will “work tirelessly to unite and level up the whole country”.
He added: “We will build back better from the pandemic and deliver on your priorities. Now let’s get on with the job.”
Hester Peirce, a commissioner of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and head of the SEC’s Crypto Task Force, reaffirmed the right to crypto self-custody and privacy in financial transactions.
“I’m a freedom maximalist,” Peirce told The Rollup podcast on Friday, while saying that self-custody of assets is a fundamental human right. She added:
“Why should I have to be forced to go through someone else to hold my assets? It baffles me that in this country, which is so premised on freedom, that would even be an issue — of course, people can hold their own assets.”
Peirce added that online financial privacy should be the standard. “It has become the presumption that if you want to keep your transactions private, you’re doing something wrong, but it should be exactly the opposite presumption,” she said.
The comments came as the Digital Asset Market Structure Clarity Act, a crypto market structure bill that includes provisions for self-custody, anti-money laundering(AML) regulations, and asset taxonomy, is delayed until 2026, according to Senator Tim Scott.
Related: SEC to hold privacy and financial surveillance roundtable in December
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) challenge Bitcoin’s self-custody ethos
Many large Bitcoin (BTC) whales and long-term holders are pivoting from self-custody to ETFs to reap the tax benefits and hassle-free management of owning crypto in an investment vehicle.
“We are witnessing the first decline in self-custodied Bitcoin in 15 years,” Dr. Martin Hiesboeck, the head of research at crypto exchange Uphold, said.
Hiesboeck attributed the shift to the SEC approving in-kind creations and redemptions for crypto ETFs in July, which allowed authorized holders to exchange crypto for ETF shares and vice versa without triggering a taxable event, unlike cash-settled ETFs.
“A move away from the self-custody mantra of ‘not your keys, not your coins’ is another nail in the coffin of the original crypto spirit,” Hiesboeck added.
In February, notable Bitcoin analyst and investor PlanB, the developer of the BTC stock-to-flow model, announced that he transferred his Bitcoin to ETFs to alleviate the “hassle” of private key management.
PlanB’s announcement caused an outcry in the Bitcoin community, as many voiced concerns that handing over custody to a third party clashed with Bitcoin’s core values.
Magazine: When privacy and AML laws conflict: Crypto projects’ impossible choice
Jeremy Corbyn has declined to say his Your Party co-founder Zarah Sultana is a friend as supporters of the new grouping gather in Liverpool.
Speaking to Sky News on the eve of the conference, Mr Corbyn acknowledged “stresses and strains” in the set-up of the party but said it had become “a lot better in the last few days and weeks and we’re going to get through this weekend”.
The former Labour leader has publicly clashed with Ms Sultana, the MP for Coventry South, over the launch and structure of the new party.
Asked if they were friends, Mr Corbyn said they were “colleagues in parliament, and we obviously communicate and so on”.
The pair appeared at separate events on the eve of the party’s inaugural gathering.
Ms Sultana had previously claimed she was being “sidelined” by a “sexist boys’ club” within the fledgling party.
Mr Corbyn said her comments were an “unfortunate choice of words” but added that he had been more involved in the organisation of the conference than she had.
The co-founders have had a strained relationship since setting up the party. Pic: Your Party
The Islington North MP also said that Your Party was still waiting for Ms Sultana to transfer all of the funds she had raised from supporters.
“Obviously having money up front for a conference is a big help,” he said.
Ms Sultana has insisted she is transferring the donations in stages.
The weekend gathering in Liverpool will see supporters choose between four options for a permanent party name: Your Party, Our Party, Popular Alliance, For the Many.
The preferred choice of Ms Sultana – The Left – did not make the ballot.
Similarly, the Coventry MP had said she favoured a co-leader approach, but members will only be able to pick between single leadership or collective leadership models.
Speaking at her own pre-conference rally, Ms Sultana blamed a “nameless, faceless bureaucrat” for restricting the choices.
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The meeting also risked being disrupted by a series of member expulsions. One of those ejected, Lewis Nielsen, accused a “clique” of trying to “take over”.
Your Party sources said expulsions related to members of the Socialist Workers Party and that holding another national party membership was not allowed.
Ms Sultana blamed a “culture of paranoia at the top” and said she believed the same people who had been briefing against her were now also expelling members.
Mr Corbyn will open the conference on Saturday, while the results of the main decision-making votes will be announced on Sunday.
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