Britain woke up this morning finding itself being ruled by the Conservatives for the first time since 1997; being ruled by the Liberals for the first time since WWII; and being run by a coalition government for the first time since WWII.
The result of Britain's first hung parliament since 1974, in which no party got an overall majority in the election, led to both the Tories and Labour trying to woo the Liberal Democrats into helping them form a new government.
During the election campaign, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said that, in the event of a hung parliament, which was considered a huge possibility, his party would talk to whichever party has the most seats and the most votes. That party turned out to be the Conservatives, who got 2 million more votes and 50 more seats than Labour.
During the talks between the Tories and the Liberal Democrats, and the talks between Labour and the Liberal Democrats, the Lib Dems tried to get the other party to agree to implement some of their policies in return for the Lib Dems helping to form a new government. However, it has since emerged that Labour never took the talks seriously since them forming a coalition government was a tall order. Not only would a Labour/Liberal coalition be known as the "coalition of the losers" but Labour would also have to get some of the smaller parties on board, such as UKIP, the Greens and even the Scottish and Welsh Nationalists (which the English would see as unfair) as part of a "rainbow coalition" to get over the magic number of 326 MPS needed for a majority.
However, the Tories were able to have just the Lib Dems onboard, so the only serious talks took place between them and the Lib Dems.
The Lib Dems, huge pro-Europeans, agreed to Tory demands that Britain will not join the Euro and will not integrate itself closer to the EU without holding referendums.
Though Tories agreed with the Lid Dem proposal to introduce fixed term Parliaments. Previously, Parliaments lasted either four or five years. Now, Parliaments will be every five years, witht he next election being on 7th May 2015.
So, yesterday, a deal was finally agreed, in which the Tories and the Lib dems would form Britain's first coalition government since WWII. The Tories' 306 MPs have combined with the Liberal Democrats' 57 MPs to give them 363 MPs, which puts them past the magic 326 MPs needed for a majority. Assuming the Tories win the ultra-safe constituency of Thirsk and Malton, where polling and been delayed, that will put them on 364 MPs.
So Tory leader David Cameron has become Britain's 53rd Prime Minister, and the 19th Old Etonian Prime Minister.
And it seems fitting that the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg (who Cameron once called a joke), has become Deputy Prime Minister.
In total, 5 Liberal Democrats have jobs in the Cabinet. Apart from Clegg, the Lib Dems' respected economics spokesman, Vince Cable, has become Business Secretary (though it was thought he would become Chancellor of the Exchequer); Chris Huhne has become the Energy and Climate Change Secretary; David Laws has become Chief Secretary to the Treasury; and Danny Alexander has become Scottish Secretary.
Two former Tory leaders have jobs in the Cabinet. William Hague, leader from 1997-2001, is the new Foreign Secretary and Iain Duncan Smith, leader from 2001 to 2003, is the new Work and Pensions Secretary.
George Osborne is the Chancellor of the Exchequer. At just 38 (a relative kid), he's the youngest Chancellor since the 1880s.
Theresa May has become Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equality.
Liam Fox becomes Defence Secretary; Ken Clarke, Chancellor of the Exchequer under John Major, becomes Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary; Michael Gove becomes Education Secretary.
David Cameron, the great-great-great-great-great-grandson of King William IV and his mistress Dorothea Jordan, and a direct descendant of King george I, King George II and King George III, is Britain's 53rd Prime Minister. He is also, at the age of just 43, the youngest British PM since Lord Liverpool in 1812. He is six months younger than Blair was when he took office in 1997.
Yesterday he travelled to Buckingham Palace to meet the nation's headmistress, Queen Elizabeth II, his fifth cousin, twice removed, to ask her permission to become Prime Minister. That was after Gordon Brown met her to resign.
The first leader to phone the new PM was Obama, who invited the British Prime Minister to the White House in the summer.
The new pals act: Cameron and Clegg's comedy turn in the Downing St garden seals their coalition
By Daily Mail Reporter
12th May 2010
David Cameron meets the Queen (his distant cousin) at Buckingham Palace last night as she invites him to become her 12th Prime Minister. Apparently, he was slightly nervous.
Double act: Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrat leader) and David Cameron (Tory leader) prepare to front the nation at Downing Street today. They were once fierce political rivals. Despite Cameron once calling Clegg "a joke", the two men have a much better relationship than the one each of them had with Brown.
The members of Britain's new Tory/Liberal Democrat Government
David Cameron - Prime Minister
Nick Clegg - Deputy Prime Minister
George Osborne - Chancellor of the Exchequer
Theresa May - Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equality
William Hague - Foreign Secretary
Dr Liam Fox - Defence Secretary
Ken Clarke - Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary
Andrew Lansley - Health Secretary
Michael Gove - Education Secretary
Vince Cable - Business Secretary
Iain Duncan Smith - Work and Pensions Secretary
Chris Huhne - Energy and Climate Change Secretary
David Laws - Chief Secretary to the Treasurery
Danny Alexander - Scottish Secretary
Patrick McLoughlin - Chief Whip
Eric Pickles - Communities and Local Government Secretary
Britain's new leadership team fronted the nation for the first time together this afternoon promising they would be united behind the 'one key purpose' of giving the country strong and stable leadership for the long term.
With his new Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg standing alongside him in the Downing Street garden, Prime Minister David Cameron said that their alliance represented a 'historic and seismic shift' in the political landscape.
In a question and answer session punctuated by jokes and obvious good humour they promised to be guided by the three key principles of freedom, fairness and responsibility.
In a light-hearted moment Mr Cameron had to promise to eat his own words after admitting he branded his new coalition partner as a 'joke' in a book.
The Deputy PM pretended to storm off - prompting Mr Cameron to plead with him to 'come back'.
His unfavourable assessment of his closest new government colleague was recorded in a 2008 book by GQ editor Dylan Jones, who asked him for his favourite joke. 'Nick Clegg, at the moment,' he told him.
Asked by a reporter today about the jibe and whether he now regretted it, Mr Cameron turned to Mr Clegg and confessed: 'I'm afraid I did'.
He said it reflected a wider point about the potential for people to find disagreement between the two parties that have come together to form the new government: 'We are all going to have things we said thrown back at us,' he said.
'And there is a serious point in this: if you want to spend the next five years finding Lib Dem politicians who slightly disagree with Conservative politicians about this, or a slightly nuanced policy, you can find lots.
'But we are looking at the bigger picture: we are looking at what a bold move like this with a stable government can achieve.
I didn't agree with Nick: David Cameron and Mr Clegg laugh about some of their differences
Press pack: Mr Clegg and Mr Cameron address the media today
'And if it means swallowing some humble pie and if it means eating some of your words, I cannot think of a more excellent diet in which to provide the country with good government.'
Mr Cameron said the appointment of five Lib Dems, including Mr Clegg, to the Cabinet was 'a sign of the strength and depth of the coalition and our sincere determination to work together constructively to make this coalition work in our national interest'.
In a swipe at the outgoing Labour administration, he said rising unemployment figures revealed this morning were 'another sign of the human cost of the economic mistakes of the past decade'.
Under Labour, the country had suffered 'a chronic short-termism in government', he said, claiming the five-year power-sharing deal would allow long-term decisions.
Speaking after him, Mr Clegg said the country needed the kind of government he and Mr Cameron had come together to provide.
'We have just been through an election campaign and now we have a coalition,' he said.
'Until today we were rivals and now we are colleagues. And that says a lot about the scale of the new politics which is now beginning to unfold.
'This is a new government, and it's a new kind of government, a radical, reforming government where it needs to be and a source of reassurance and stability at a time of great uncertainty in our country too.'
Mr Clegg said there were challenges on the economy and public finances, with a foreign conflict that 'requires resolution', and with a society 'still scarred by too much unfairness and inequality'.
Cameron and Clegg wave on the steps of No10 as they prepare for their first day working together
After you: The pair shook hands warmly and slapped backs as they entered No10 together for the first time
After arriving at Downing Street this morning, Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg immediately set to work on the first day of their ground-breaking new coalition.
Mr Cameron arrived at Number Ten shortly before 8am, closely followed by William Hague, the new Foreign Secretary who had been the main negotiator for the Tories during talks with the Liberal Democrats.
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, deputy prime minister in this extraordinary new government, pulled up at 9.30am and was met by Mr Cameron on the steps in front of the massed ranks of media.
The two men shook hands and chatted briefly as they posed for pictures before disappearing inside the famous front door - cheerfully back-slapping each other as they did so.
New Chancellor George Osborne arrived at the Treasury shortly after 10.30am closely followed by the new Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, Ken Clarke, who gave the assembled photographers a cheery wave.
Old and new: The new Chancellor George Osborne outside No11 this morning as Ken Clarke, the new Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary and made his way to No10
Asked how it felt to be back, Mr Clarke replied: 'Seems familiar.'
Mr Clarke said Mr Osborne would be 'excellent' in the role and dismissed his lack of experience.
'I've been saying for a long time he'd make an excellent chancellor,' Mr Clarke told Sky News.
'I was very untested when I became chancellor.
'I never thought there was the faintest prospect of him not getting the job, and I would have been quite outraged if George Osborne hadn't been appointed.'
Mr Cameron's new Cabinet is already taking shape, with George Osborne as Chancellor, William Hague as Foreign Secretary. In the most surprising appointment, Theresa May became Home Secretary.
The Lib Dem agreement to have 20 of their own MPs placed as junior ministers means that almost half of LIB Dem MPs will now find themselves working in government department.
It is understood that Mr Clegg's chief of staff Danny Alexander will be Scottish Secretary, while reports suggest that former Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne may take the energy brief.
Inside No10: David Cameron shows Nick Clegg inside his new home
Lib Dem list: Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg draw up their list of frontbenchers
Sources confirmed that former Tory party leader Iain Duncan Smith will be the new Work and Pensions Secretary.
The Tory leader will now have to cope with dismay in his own ranks over exactly how far he was forced to go to get his hands on the keys to Downing Street.
It was today that millions of workers will pay the full National Insurance increase in one of the many concessions made to the Lib Dems.
Mr Cameron was been forced to water down the key pledge in his manifesto to overturn Labour's 1p hike, which he consistently attacked during the election campaign.
Plans set out by the new government show workers will still have to pay the extra tax and the curb will only apply to employers so that they do not have the extra burden during the economic recovery.
In two further blows for the middle class, the Tories have shelved their aim to raise the inheritance tax threshold and capital gains tax will rise - hitting second homes and other assets.
The moves were needed to fund the key Lib Dem costly aim to raise the income tax threshold to £10,000, which will cost £17billion and was condemned by the Tories just days ago.
Enlarge
Class of 2010: The majority of the 232 new MPs chosen in last week's General Election pose with Doormen (on edge of group) for a photograph in Westminster Hall today
He sent party members an e-mail this morning to reassure them but stress that all coalitions had to be about 'compromise'.
'We campaigned on the belief that we're all in this together - and can only solve our problems together to build a stronger, more responsible society,' he said.
'I am confident that the coming together of two political parties to form one strong Government marks a new era for Britain and for British politics. Now, let's get down to work.'
In turn, the Lib Dems have signed up to enforcing spending cuts worth £6bn starting this year and have ditched their controversial plan for an amnesty for illegal immigrants.
After sweeping to power last night, Mr Cameron promised Britain a new type of leadership and echoing the words of John F Kennedy, urging voters no longer to ask 'just what you are owed, but what can I give'.
On the most momentous day in modern British political history, the 43-year-old became the youngest Premier since Lord Liverpool in 1812.
Out with the old... A removal lorry is loaded at the back of Downing Street today
Renovation rescue: A building company van arrives in Downing to build a partition in Downing Street
He hailed the extraordinary power-sharing deal with the Liberal Democrats that ushers in the first coalition administration since the Second World War.
Speaking in Downing Street, Mr Cameron warned the country faced 'deep and pressing problems', but vowed a 'proper and full coalition' government with the Liberal Democrats would focus on 'rebuilding family, rebuilding community and above all rebuilding responsibility in our country’.
He said he and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, would 'put aside party differences and work hard for the common good and the national interest'.
Mr Cameron added: 'I came into politics because I love this country. I think its best days still lie ahead.
Today he handed four further Cabinet jobs to senior Lib Dems - Vince Cable, David Laws, Danny Alexander and Chris Huhne.
George Osborne, 38, will become the youngest Chancellor of the Exchequer for 125 years, with Mr Cable as Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
Vince Cable has been made Business Secretary
Andrew Lansley is to become the new Health Secretary
Lib Dem Danny Alexander will be Scotland Secretary
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have agreed on fixed-term, five-year parliaments with immediate effect - meaning Mr Cameron will not be able to 'cut and run' by calling another election. The next national poll will be on May 7, 2015.
Mr Hague told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Britain's first coalition for 70 years would require some 'innovations' in the way Government operates.
'There are one or two measures on which we have agreed, since the parties have very different policies, that the Government will be able to bring forward measures and the Liberal Democrats will be able to abstain - for instance on the married tax allowance,' he said, adding that this would also apply to higher education funding and nuclear power.
'Across the whole programme of deficit reduction, tax reform - with the exception of married tax allowance - immigration, major political reforms and constitutional change, on pensions and welfare, on the rest of education policy, civil liberties and the environment, we have reached true collective agreement.'
David and his pregnant wife Samantha Cameron ("SamCam") leave their West London home as they head to Downing Street
New Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and his Spanish-born wife Miriam Gonzalez Durantez begin their days
Mr Hague acknowledged that there would be some people on both sides who would find the arrangement difficult to accept.
'This is a genuine compromise between the parties,' he said. 'There are many things the Liberal Democrats have had to swallow that are very difficult for them, just as there are some things - like holding a referendum on a new voting system - that are very difficult for the Conservative Party to accept.
'That means, of course, there will be people in both parties who quietly wish it hadn't happened, I'm sure.
'But the acclamation for this agreement amongst both parties was very, very strong last night and I think if we can show we can continue to work in this way, then any little resentments will be put into perspective.'
The two parties have agreed a shared programme that will significantly speed up deficit reduction, rein in Labour's Big Brother state in a 'Great Repeal Bill' and implement flagship Lib Dem proposals to increase the income tax threshold.
Mr Cameron has given way to Lib Dem demands to shelve a flagship Tory pledge on inheritance tax and will attempt to implement his marriage tax breaks without Lib Dem support.
The income tax break will be paid for by keeping part of Labour's planned National Insurance rise, the element paid for by employees, in place, and hiking capital gains tax.
The NI rise on businesses, condemned in the Tory election campaign as a 'jobs tax', will be reigned in.
Home, at last: Gordon and Sarah Brown arrive at North Queensferry, in Fife last night
All smiles: The Camerons smile and wave at the crowd before turning and going into Number 10 last night
Earlier, an emotional Gordon Brown threw in the towel after a final bid to keep Labour in power by cobbling together a deal with the Lib Dems and other smaller parties collapsed in bitter recrimination
In dramatic scenes in Downing Street, the Prime Minister, flanked by his wife Sarah and two young sons, wept as he conceded his own 'frailties' but insisted: 'I have always strived to serve, to do my best in the interests of Britain.'
His voice cracking with emotion and with tears in his eyes, Mr Brown told the nation it had been a 'privilege to serve' and do a job he loved, bringing to an end his Premiership which had lasted two years, ten months and 14 days.
For the first time ever, his children John, six, and Fraser, three, appeared beside him in public and the family posed together in touching scenes before walking away hand-in-hand.
And Mr Brown paid tribute to his wife's 'unwavering support and her love' and to his sons 'for the love they bring to our lives'.
CONSERVATIVE WINS
Last night he and his family flew to Scotland after departing from Number Ten for the last time.
A plot orchestrated by an unelected cabal around Mr Brown to try to prop up Labour despite its election defeat was crushed by a revolt led by senior Cabinet ministers, who argued it would be undemocratic.
Lord Mandelson and Tony Blair's former spin chief Alastair Campbell were facing a fierce backlash from colleagues for persuading Mr Brown to make an 'undignified' offer on Monday to stay on until the autumn before quitting in an attempt to lure the Lib Dems into a power-sharing pact with Labour.
Former health secretary Andy Burnham broke ranks to oppose a Lib-Lab coalition. 'We can't get away from the fact that Labour didn't win,' he said.
Instead, after the five most dramatic days in modern political history, Mr Cameron agreed a stunning deal that will mean Britain being governed by its first coalition administration since the 1930s.
Yes Prime Minister: David Cameron and wife Samantha are welcomed to No10 by Cabinet Secretary Gus O'Donnell
The Tory leader paid an extraordinary price to bring Mr Clegg into the fold and now faces a battle to persuade his shell-shocked party that it is not too high.
Mr Cameron handed a clutch of seats around the Cabinet table to the Lib Dems and, despite the deep reservations of many of his MPs, agreed to a referendum on reform of Britain's voting system.
The Lib Dems, who will sit around the Cabinet table, will be the first to do so since Sir Archibald Sinclair, Minister for Air in the wartime Cabinet, who gave the order to bomb Dresden.
Mr Clegg agreed that under the new Chancellor George Osborne, public spending cuts must begin at once to start to rebuild confidence in Britain's ability to repay its massive debts.
He also accepted Tory 'red lines' on the EU, immigration and Trident.
But Mr Cameron is expected to have to shelve a flagship Tory pledge on inheritance tax and instead move towards the Lib Dem policy of raising the income tax threshold to £10,000.
Mr Clegg, who is now a heartbeat away from the premiership, is expected to stand in for Mr Cameron at Prime Minister's Questions when he is absent. And he may have to stand in for Mr Cameron if the latter takes paternity leave in September.
Mr Clegg - whose party voted early this morning to accept the coalition deal - accepted Tory ‘red lines’ on the EU, immigration and Trident.
At least one junior Lib Dem minister is expected to be appointed in every government department, leaving more than 20 Tories who had been expecting jobs disappointed.
Mr Cameron receives a telephone call from U.S. President Barack Obama, congratulating him on his new role
Last night, he was summoned to Buckingham Palace with wife Samantha to be asked by the Queen to form the next government.
After entering Downing Street just before 9pm last night, he took a telephone call of congratulations from U.S. President Barack Obama.
Chancellor Merkel of Germany also called to invite Cameron to visit Berlin ‘at the earliest opportunity’.
After five days of paralysis following the first hung Parliament for 36 years, crowds had begun to gather in Parliament Square yesterday to demand that the Lib Dems make up their minds over who they wanted to support.
Mr Clegg was accused of behaving like a 'harlot' after it emerged that he had been conducting secret talks with Labour while on the brink of a deal with the Conservatives.
Yesterday morning, Lib Dem negotiations with Labour were underway, and a small circle around Mr Brown believed a 'rainbow' coalition - roping in Scottish and Welsh nationalists, Northern Irish MPs and the single Green Party MP - could still be assembled to keep the Tories out of power.
Outgoing Home Secretary Alan Johnson declared: 'We are concentrating on cobbling together a coalition government.'
But as the day unfolded, a string of senior Labour figures emerged to denounce the idea of a 'coalition of losers' as desperate and counterproductive.
There was mounting fury on the Labour benches at the plot that had been cooked up by three unelected figures - Lord Mandelson, Mr Campbell and Lord Adonis, a defector from the Lib Dems to Labour.
Several senior Labour MPs said they suspected the Business Secretary had authorised discussions with the Lib Dems ahead of polling day and without Mr Brown's knowledge.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw, Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liam Byrne are all also understood to have spoken out against the plan in a stormy meeting of the Cabinet.
Mr Straw told friends that most of the Cabinet was 'utterly bewildered' that Mr Brown had ever been persuaded to try to keep the party in government, despite it worst election defeat since 1983.
Former Labour home secretary David Blunkett accused the Lib Dems of acting like 'every harlot in history' and warned that a 'coalition of the defeated' would spell electoral disaster for Labour.
Schools Secretary Ed Balls, who also hopes to replace Mr Brown as Labour leader, is being accused by Lord Mandelson of deliberately scuppering the talks with the Lib Dems, according to party sources.
The notoriously aggressive Mr Balls is said to have told his Lib Dem counterparts he was determined to 'defend' the entirety of the Labour manifesto.
Climate Secretary Ed Miliband, who is also expected to enter the leadership race alongside his brother, David, favourite to succeed Mr Brown, was also said to have adopted a 'half-hearted' approach to the talks.
The Lib Dems said several ministers had openly undermined Mr Brown's claim that he could deliver immediate reform of the electoral system, without holding a referendum first.
Mr Blair last night hailed his successor's 'extraordinary service to social justice'.
And Labour's former deputy prime minister John Prescott claimed Mr Brown had been 'hounded out' having 'nearly won a fourth term'.
Mr Clegg, who found himself in the role of 'kingmaker' despite losing seats at last Thursday's election, is facing a battle to take his party with him into coalition with the Conservatives.
The majority of his MPs and activists are left-leaning and see Labour as their natural political bedfellows.
Last night, Mr Clegg was locked in talks with his Parliamentary party and ruling body seeking final approval for the coalition deal.
The Lib Dem leader is likely to face pressure from the grassroots to convene an emergency conference of members to back the power-sharing pact.
In a sign of the mutual mistrust that will mark the new coalition
administration, former Tory foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind hit out at Mr Clegg for 'two-timing' the Conservative party, and said he was 'saddened, depressed and very angry' that he had conducted secret talks with Labour.
dailymail.co.uk
The result of Britain's first hung parliament since 1974, in which no party got an overall majority in the election, led to both the Tories and Labour trying to woo the Liberal Democrats into helping them form a new government.
During the election campaign, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said that, in the event of a hung parliament, which was considered a huge possibility, his party would talk to whichever party has the most seats and the most votes. That party turned out to be the Conservatives, who got 2 million more votes and 50 more seats than Labour.
During the talks between the Tories and the Liberal Democrats, and the talks between Labour and the Liberal Democrats, the Lib Dems tried to get the other party to agree to implement some of their policies in return for the Lib Dems helping to form a new government. However, it has since emerged that Labour never took the talks seriously since them forming a coalition government was a tall order. Not only would a Labour/Liberal coalition be known as the "coalition of the losers" but Labour would also have to get some of the smaller parties on board, such as UKIP, the Greens and even the Scottish and Welsh Nationalists (which the English would see as unfair) as part of a "rainbow coalition" to get over the magic number of 326 MPS needed for a majority.
However, the Tories were able to have just the Lib Dems onboard, so the only serious talks took place between them and the Lib Dems.
The Lib Dems, huge pro-Europeans, agreed to Tory demands that Britain will not join the Euro and will not integrate itself closer to the EU without holding referendums.
Though Tories agreed with the Lid Dem proposal to introduce fixed term Parliaments. Previously, Parliaments lasted either four or five years. Now, Parliaments will be every five years, witht he next election being on 7th May 2015.
So, yesterday, a deal was finally agreed, in which the Tories and the Lib dems would form Britain's first coalition government since WWII. The Tories' 306 MPs have combined with the Liberal Democrats' 57 MPs to give them 363 MPs, which puts them past the magic 326 MPs needed for a majority. Assuming the Tories win the ultra-safe constituency of Thirsk and Malton, where polling and been delayed, that will put them on 364 MPs.
So Tory leader David Cameron has become Britain's 53rd Prime Minister, and the 19th Old Etonian Prime Minister.
And it seems fitting that the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg (who Cameron once called a joke), has become Deputy Prime Minister.
In total, 5 Liberal Democrats have jobs in the Cabinet. Apart from Clegg, the Lib Dems' respected economics spokesman, Vince Cable, has become Business Secretary (though it was thought he would become Chancellor of the Exchequer); Chris Huhne has become the Energy and Climate Change Secretary; David Laws has become Chief Secretary to the Treasury; and Danny Alexander has become Scottish Secretary.
Two former Tory leaders have jobs in the Cabinet. William Hague, leader from 1997-2001, is the new Foreign Secretary and Iain Duncan Smith, leader from 2001 to 2003, is the new Work and Pensions Secretary.
George Osborne is the Chancellor of the Exchequer. At just 38 (a relative kid), he's the youngest Chancellor since the 1880s.
Theresa May has become Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equality.
Liam Fox becomes Defence Secretary; Ken Clarke, Chancellor of the Exchequer under John Major, becomes Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary; Michael Gove becomes Education Secretary.
David Cameron, the great-great-great-great-great-grandson of King William IV and his mistress Dorothea Jordan, and a direct descendant of King george I, King George II and King George III, is Britain's 53rd Prime Minister. He is also, at the age of just 43, the youngest British PM since Lord Liverpool in 1812. He is six months younger than Blair was when he took office in 1997.
Yesterday he travelled to Buckingham Palace to meet the nation's headmistress, Queen Elizabeth II, his fifth cousin, twice removed, to ask her permission to become Prime Minister. That was after Gordon Brown met her to resign.
The first leader to phone the new PM was Obama, who invited the British Prime Minister to the White House in the summer.
The new pals act: Cameron and Clegg's comedy turn in the Downing St garden seals their coalition
By Daily Mail Reporter
12th May 2010
- George Osborne to be new Chancellor and William Hague Foreign Secretary
- Teresa May appointed Home Secretary, Ken Clarke as Justice Secretary
- Lib Dems in Cabinet: Clegg (Dep PM), Cable, Laws, Alexander and Huhne
- Tories give way on inheritance tax but will go it alone on marriage tax breaks
- Lib Dem policy of £10,000 income tax threshold to become major priority
- Cameron echoes JFK in first address and takes call from President Obama
David Cameron meets the Queen (his distant cousin) at Buckingham Palace last night as she invites him to become her 12th Prime Minister. Apparently, he was slightly nervous.
Double act: Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrat leader) and David Cameron (Tory leader) prepare to front the nation at Downing Street today. They were once fierce political rivals. Despite Cameron once calling Clegg "a joke", the two men have a much better relationship than the one each of them had with Brown.
The members of Britain's new Tory/Liberal Democrat Government
David Cameron - Prime Minister
Nick Clegg - Deputy Prime Minister
George Osborne - Chancellor of the Exchequer
Theresa May - Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equality
William Hague - Foreign Secretary
Dr Liam Fox - Defence Secretary
Ken Clarke - Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary
Andrew Lansley - Health Secretary
Michael Gove - Education Secretary
Vince Cable - Business Secretary
Iain Duncan Smith - Work and Pensions Secretary
Chris Huhne - Energy and Climate Change Secretary
David Laws - Chief Secretary to the Treasurery
Danny Alexander - Scottish Secretary
Patrick McLoughlin - Chief Whip
Eric Pickles - Communities and Local Government Secretary
Britain's new leadership team fronted the nation for the first time together this afternoon promising they would be united behind the 'one key purpose' of giving the country strong and stable leadership for the long term.
With his new Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg standing alongside him in the Downing Street garden, Prime Minister David Cameron said that their alliance represented a 'historic and seismic shift' in the political landscape.
In a question and answer session punctuated by jokes and obvious good humour they promised to be guided by the three key principles of freedom, fairness and responsibility.
In a light-hearted moment Mr Cameron had to promise to eat his own words after admitting he branded his new coalition partner as a 'joke' in a book.
The Deputy PM pretended to storm off - prompting Mr Cameron to plead with him to 'come back'.
His unfavourable assessment of his closest new government colleague was recorded in a 2008 book by GQ editor Dylan Jones, who asked him for his favourite joke. 'Nick Clegg, at the moment,' he told him.
Asked by a reporter today about the jibe and whether he now regretted it, Mr Cameron turned to Mr Clegg and confessed: 'I'm afraid I did'.
He said it reflected a wider point about the potential for people to find disagreement between the two parties that have come together to form the new government: 'We are all going to have things we said thrown back at us,' he said.
'And there is a serious point in this: if you want to spend the next five years finding Lib Dem politicians who slightly disagree with Conservative politicians about this, or a slightly nuanced policy, you can find lots.
'But we are looking at the bigger picture: we are looking at what a bold move like this with a stable government can achieve.
'And if it means swallowing some humble pie and if it means eating some of your words, I cannot think of a more excellent diet in which to provide the country with good government.'
Mr Cameron said the appointment of five Lib Dems, including Mr Clegg, to the Cabinet was 'a sign of the strength and depth of the coalition and our sincere determination to work together constructively to make this coalition work in our national interest'.
In a swipe at the outgoing Labour administration, he said rising unemployment figures revealed this morning were 'another sign of the human cost of the economic mistakes of the past decade'.
Under Labour, the country had suffered 'a chronic short-termism in government', he said, claiming the five-year power-sharing deal would allow long-term decisions.
Speaking after him, Mr Clegg said the country needed the kind of government he and Mr Cameron had come together to provide.
'We have just been through an election campaign and now we have a coalition,' he said.
'Until today we were rivals and now we are colleagues. And that says a lot about the scale of the new politics which is now beginning to unfold.
'This is a new government, and it's a new kind of government, a radical, reforming government where it needs to be and a source of reassurance and stability at a time of great uncertainty in our country too.'
Mr Clegg said there were challenges on the economy and public finances, with a foreign conflict that 'requires resolution', and with a society 'still scarred by too much unfairness and inequality'.
Cameron and Clegg wave on the steps of No10 as they prepare for their first day working together
After you: The pair shook hands warmly and slapped backs as they entered No10 together for the first time
After arriving at Downing Street this morning, Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg immediately set to work on the first day of their ground-breaking new coalition.
Mr Cameron arrived at Number Ten shortly before 8am, closely followed by William Hague, the new Foreign Secretary who had been the main negotiator for the Tories during talks with the Liberal Democrats.
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, deputy prime minister in this extraordinary new government, pulled up at 9.30am and was met by Mr Cameron on the steps in front of the massed ranks of media.
The two men shook hands and chatted briefly as they posed for pictures before disappearing inside the famous front door - cheerfully back-slapping each other as they did so.
New Chancellor George Osborne arrived at the Treasury shortly after 10.30am closely followed by the new Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, Ken Clarke, who gave the assembled photographers a cheery wave.
Old and new: The new Chancellor George Osborne outside No11 this morning as Ken Clarke, the new Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary and made his way to No10
Asked how it felt to be back, Mr Clarke replied: 'Seems familiar.'
Mr Clarke said Mr Osborne would be 'excellent' in the role and dismissed his lack of experience.
'I've been saying for a long time he'd make an excellent chancellor,' Mr Clarke told Sky News.
'I was very untested when I became chancellor.
'I never thought there was the faintest prospect of him not getting the job, and I would have been quite outraged if George Osborne hadn't been appointed.'
Mr Cameron's new Cabinet is already taking shape, with George Osborne as Chancellor, William Hague as Foreign Secretary. In the most surprising appointment, Theresa May became Home Secretary.
The Lib Dem agreement to have 20 of their own MPs placed as junior ministers means that almost half of LIB Dem MPs will now find themselves working in government department.
It is understood that Mr Clegg's chief of staff Danny Alexander will be Scottish Secretary, while reports suggest that former Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne may take the energy brief.
Sources confirmed that former Tory party leader Iain Duncan Smith will be the new Work and Pensions Secretary.
The Tory leader will now have to cope with dismay in his own ranks over exactly how far he was forced to go to get his hands on the keys to Downing Street.
It was today that millions of workers will pay the full National Insurance increase in one of the many concessions made to the Lib Dems.
Mr Cameron was been forced to water down the key pledge in his manifesto to overturn Labour's 1p hike, which he consistently attacked during the election campaign.
Plans set out by the new government show workers will still have to pay the extra tax and the curb will only apply to employers so that they do not have the extra burden during the economic recovery.
In two further blows for the middle class, the Tories have shelved their aim to raise the inheritance tax threshold and capital gains tax will rise - hitting second homes and other assets.
The moves were needed to fund the key Lib Dem costly aim to raise the income tax threshold to £10,000, which will cost £17billion and was condemned by the Tories just days ago.
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Class of 2010: The majority of the 232 new MPs chosen in last week's General Election pose with Doormen (on edge of group) for a photograph in Westminster Hall todayHe sent party members an e-mail this morning to reassure them but stress that all coalitions had to be about 'compromise'.
'We campaigned on the belief that we're all in this together - and can only solve our problems together to build a stronger, more responsible society,' he said.
'I am confident that the coming together of two political parties to form one strong Government marks a new era for Britain and for British politics. Now, let's get down to work.'
In turn, the Lib Dems have signed up to enforcing spending cuts worth £6bn starting this year and have ditched their controversial plan for an amnesty for illegal immigrants.
After sweeping to power last night, Mr Cameron promised Britain a new type of leadership and echoing the words of John F Kennedy, urging voters no longer to ask 'just what you are owed, but what can I give'.
On the most momentous day in modern British political history, the 43-year-old became the youngest Premier since Lord Liverpool in 1812.
He hailed the extraordinary power-sharing deal with the Liberal Democrats that ushers in the first coalition administration since the Second World War.
Speaking in Downing Street, Mr Cameron warned the country faced 'deep and pressing problems', but vowed a 'proper and full coalition' government with the Liberal Democrats would focus on 'rebuilding family, rebuilding community and above all rebuilding responsibility in our country’.
He said he and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, would 'put aside party differences and work hard for the common good and the national interest'.
Mr Cameron added: 'I came into politics because I love this country. I think its best days still lie ahead.
Today he handed four further Cabinet jobs to senior Lib Dems - Vince Cable, David Laws, Danny Alexander and Chris Huhne.
George Osborne, 38, will become the youngest Chancellor of the Exchequer for 125 years, with Mr Cable as Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
Vince Cable has been made Business Secretary
Andrew Lansley is to become the new Health Secretary
Lib Dem Danny Alexander will be Scotland Secretary
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have agreed on fixed-term, five-year parliaments with immediate effect - meaning Mr Cameron will not be able to 'cut and run' by calling another election. The next national poll will be on May 7, 2015.
Mr Hague told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Britain's first coalition for 70 years would require some 'innovations' in the way Government operates.
'There are one or two measures on which we have agreed, since the parties have very different policies, that the Government will be able to bring forward measures and the Liberal Democrats will be able to abstain - for instance on the married tax allowance,' he said, adding that this would also apply to higher education funding and nuclear power.
'Across the whole programme of deficit reduction, tax reform - with the exception of married tax allowance - immigration, major political reforms and constitutional change, on pensions and welfare, on the rest of education policy, civil liberties and the environment, we have reached true collective agreement.'
David and his pregnant wife Samantha Cameron ("SamCam") leave their West London home as they head to Downing Street
New Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and his Spanish-born wife Miriam Gonzalez Durantez begin their days
Mr Hague acknowledged that there would be some people on both sides who would find the arrangement difficult to accept.
'This is a genuine compromise between the parties,' he said. 'There are many things the Liberal Democrats have had to swallow that are very difficult for them, just as there are some things - like holding a referendum on a new voting system - that are very difficult for the Conservative Party to accept.
'That means, of course, there will be people in both parties who quietly wish it hadn't happened, I'm sure.
'But the acclamation for this agreement amongst both parties was very, very strong last night and I think if we can show we can continue to work in this way, then any little resentments will be put into perspective.'
The two parties have agreed a shared programme that will significantly speed up deficit reduction, rein in Labour's Big Brother state in a 'Great Repeal Bill' and implement flagship Lib Dem proposals to increase the income tax threshold.
Mr Cameron has given way to Lib Dem demands to shelve a flagship Tory pledge on inheritance tax and will attempt to implement his marriage tax breaks without Lib Dem support.
The income tax break will be paid for by keeping part of Labour's planned National Insurance rise, the element paid for by employees, in place, and hiking capital gains tax.
The NI rise on businesses, condemned in the Tory election campaign as a 'jobs tax', will be reigned in.
All smiles: The Camerons smile and wave at the crowd before turning and going into Number 10 last night
Earlier, an emotional Gordon Brown threw in the towel after a final bid to keep Labour in power by cobbling together a deal with the Lib Dems and other smaller parties collapsed in bitter recrimination
In dramatic scenes in Downing Street, the Prime Minister, flanked by his wife Sarah and two young sons, wept as he conceded his own 'frailties' but insisted: 'I have always strived to serve, to do my best in the interests of Britain.'
His voice cracking with emotion and with tears in his eyes, Mr Brown told the nation it had been a 'privilege to serve' and do a job he loved, bringing to an end his Premiership which had lasted two years, ten months and 14 days.
For the first time ever, his children John, six, and Fraser, three, appeared beside him in public and the family posed together in touching scenes before walking away hand-in-hand.
And Mr Brown paid tribute to his wife's 'unwavering support and her love' and to his sons 'for the love they bring to our lives'.
CONSERVATIVE WINS
- £6bn spending cuts will start this year
- Lib Dems agree to back an annual cap on non-EU migrants
- Benefits crackdown, which will see claimants who refuse to work denied handouts, will go ahead
- Flagship 'free schools' programme will proceed as planned
- No further transfer of power to the EU during the next Parliament
- Commitment to the Trident nuclear deterrent, though the Lib Dems will be free to campaign for alternatives
- Lib Dems 1% mansion tax on properties worth £2m or more has been ditched
- IN DOUBT: Cameron has insisted on trying to go ahead with plans for £150-a-year tax break for married couples despite fierce Lib Dem opposition
- Fixed term Parliaments, meaning Cameron gives up his historic right to choose when he goes to the polls
- Lib Dem policy of lifting the income tax threshold to £10,000 will be major priority, to be paid for by raising Capital Gains Tax
- Tory plan to raise the inheritance tax threshold, which the Lib Dems bitterly opposed, has been shelved
- The two parties have struck a deal on a new 'pupil premium' which will mean schools getting extra funding for deprived schoolchildren
- Britain's banks will be broken up so that 'casino' investment arms are separated from old-fashioned retail banks
- IN DOUBT: Coalition committed to the Trident, though the Lib Dems will be free to campaign for alternatives
Last night he and his family flew to Scotland after departing from Number Ten for the last time.
A plot orchestrated by an unelected cabal around Mr Brown to try to prop up Labour despite its election defeat was crushed by a revolt led by senior Cabinet ministers, who argued it would be undemocratic.
Lord Mandelson and Tony Blair's former spin chief Alastair Campbell were facing a fierce backlash from colleagues for persuading Mr Brown to make an 'undignified' offer on Monday to stay on until the autumn before quitting in an attempt to lure the Lib Dems into a power-sharing pact with Labour.
Former health secretary Andy Burnham broke ranks to oppose a Lib-Lab coalition. 'We can't get away from the fact that Labour didn't win,' he said.
Instead, after the five most dramatic days in modern political history, Mr Cameron agreed a stunning deal that will mean Britain being governed by its first coalition administration since the 1930s.
The Tory leader paid an extraordinary price to bring Mr Clegg into the fold and now faces a battle to persuade his shell-shocked party that it is not too high.
Mr Cameron handed a clutch of seats around the Cabinet table to the Lib Dems and, despite the deep reservations of many of his MPs, agreed to a referendum on reform of Britain's voting system.
The Lib Dems, who will sit around the Cabinet table, will be the first to do so since Sir Archibald Sinclair, Minister for Air in the wartime Cabinet, who gave the order to bomb Dresden.
Mr Clegg agreed that under the new Chancellor George Osborne, public spending cuts must begin at once to start to rebuild confidence in Britain's ability to repay its massive debts.
He also accepted Tory 'red lines' on the EU, immigration and Trident.
But Mr Cameron is expected to have to shelve a flagship Tory pledge on inheritance tax and instead move towards the Lib Dem policy of raising the income tax threshold to £10,000.
Mr Clegg, who is now a heartbeat away from the premiership, is expected to stand in for Mr Cameron at Prime Minister's Questions when he is absent. And he may have to stand in for Mr Cameron if the latter takes paternity leave in September.
Mr Clegg - whose party voted early this morning to accept the coalition deal - accepted Tory ‘red lines’ on the EU, immigration and Trident.
At least one junior Lib Dem minister is expected to be appointed in every government department, leaving more than 20 Tories who had been expecting jobs disappointed.
Mr Cameron receives a telephone call from U.S. President Barack Obama, congratulating him on his new role
Last night, he was summoned to Buckingham Palace with wife Samantha to be asked by the Queen to form the next government.
After entering Downing Street just before 9pm last night, he took a telephone call of congratulations from U.S. President Barack Obama.
Chancellor Merkel of Germany also called to invite Cameron to visit Berlin ‘at the earliest opportunity’.
After five days of paralysis following the first hung Parliament for 36 years, crowds had begun to gather in Parliament Square yesterday to demand that the Lib Dems make up their minds over who they wanted to support.
Mr Clegg was accused of behaving like a 'harlot' after it emerged that he had been conducting secret talks with Labour while on the brink of a deal with the Conservatives.
Yesterday morning, Lib Dem negotiations with Labour were underway, and a small circle around Mr Brown believed a 'rainbow' coalition - roping in Scottish and Welsh nationalists, Northern Irish MPs and the single Green Party MP - could still be assembled to keep the Tories out of power.
Outgoing Home Secretary Alan Johnson declared: 'We are concentrating on cobbling together a coalition government.'
But as the day unfolded, a string of senior Labour figures emerged to denounce the idea of a 'coalition of losers' as desperate and counterproductive.
There was mounting fury on the Labour benches at the plot that had been cooked up by three unelected figures - Lord Mandelson, Mr Campbell and Lord Adonis, a defector from the Lib Dems to Labour.
Several senior Labour MPs said they suspected the Business Secretary had authorised discussions with the Lib Dems ahead of polling day and without Mr Brown's knowledge.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw, Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liam Byrne are all also understood to have spoken out against the plan in a stormy meeting of the Cabinet.
Mr Straw told friends that most of the Cabinet was 'utterly bewildered' that Mr Brown had ever been persuaded to try to keep the party in government, despite it worst election defeat since 1983.
Former Labour home secretary David Blunkett accused the Lib Dems of acting like 'every harlot in history' and warned that a 'coalition of the defeated' would spell electoral disaster for Labour.
Schools Secretary Ed Balls, who also hopes to replace Mr Brown as Labour leader, is being accused by Lord Mandelson of deliberately scuppering the talks with the Lib Dems, according to party sources.
The notoriously aggressive Mr Balls is said to have told his Lib Dem counterparts he was determined to 'defend' the entirety of the Labour manifesto.
Climate Secretary Ed Miliband, who is also expected to enter the leadership race alongside his brother, David, favourite to succeed Mr Brown, was also said to have adopted a 'half-hearted' approach to the talks.
The Lib Dems said several ministers had openly undermined Mr Brown's claim that he could deliver immediate reform of the electoral system, without holding a referendum first.
Mr Blair last night hailed his successor's 'extraordinary service to social justice'.
And Labour's former deputy prime minister John Prescott claimed Mr Brown had been 'hounded out' having 'nearly won a fourth term'.
Mr Clegg, who found himself in the role of 'kingmaker' despite losing seats at last Thursday's election, is facing a battle to take his party with him into coalition with the Conservatives.
The majority of his MPs and activists are left-leaning and see Labour as their natural political bedfellows.
Last night, Mr Clegg was locked in talks with his Parliamentary party and ruling body seeking final approval for the coalition deal.
The Lib Dem leader is likely to face pressure from the grassroots to convene an emergency conference of members to back the power-sharing pact.
In a sign of the mutual mistrust that will mark the new coalition
administration, former Tory foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind hit out at Mr Clegg for 'two-timing' the Conservative party, and said he was 'saddened, depressed and very angry' that he had conducted secret talks with Labour.
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